MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. Men of any age are more likely to die from COVID-19, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus, than women, however, there is no clear explanation of this phenomenon so far, Olga Gracheva, an expert with the Russian Health Ministry, informed on Thursday.

"More men die from the coronavirus at any age. Namely, there is research regarding the features of the immune system - men’s immune system ages faster, and biological aging happens faster with men. <…> But there is no 100% explanation for this phenomenon, this requires clarification," she said during an online session of the Russian Academy of Sciences research council dedicated to COVID-19 treatment and rehabilitation.

Earlier, Vasily Akimkin, director of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology, stated that women are 2-3% more likely to contract the coronavirus than men.

Akimkin added that Russia ranks fourth on the total number of documented cases of COVID-19, sixth on daily new cases, and 12th on the coronavirus death toll. Russia ranks 105th in the world on the COVID-19 lethality level, 46th on lethality level per 100,000 residents and 43rd on the number of cases per 100,000 residents.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, about 38.5 mln people have been infected and over 1.09 mln have died. Russia has documented 1,354,163 cases of infection, while 1,048,097 people have recovered and 23,491 have died.