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Doctors and nurses in Russia have told the BBC about working with limited protective equipment Image caption: Doctors and nurses in Russia have told the BBC about working with limited protective equipment

On the face of it this was a stark announcement by the head of Russia’s healthcare watchdog. Alla Samoylova told an online seminar that 489 medical workers had died as a result of coronavirus, which would represent more than 6% of all Covid-19 deaths here.

Roszdravdadzor later clarified that the figure referred to an unofficial but widely followed tally kept by medical professionals themselves, not official statistics. But we now know that the watchdog keeps a close eye on those numbers, and gives them credence.

In fact, the "memorial list", as it’s called, currently records 505 deaths, including healthcare workers from Ukraine and Belarus.

The last official count from the health ministry came three weeks ago and reported that 101 people had died.

What looks like an abnormally high percentage of medics’ deaths probably partly reflects issues with overall fatality figures. Excess mortality statistics for Moscow in May show three times more deaths than the number so far officially attributed to coronavirus.

There has long been concern about the provision of protective gear (PPE) for hospital and ambulance staff. Doctors and nurses have described to us having to work with infected patients in regular, gauze masks, and hospital "red zones" that were not fully isolated. Most said the situation had later improved.