Germany is also affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, but unlike its many neighbors, the country seems to have an extremely low death rate. How to explain it?
To date (Wednesday), Italy registers 69,176 people affected by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, for 6820 deaths (9.8% mortality rate). Spain is also hard hit, with 47,610 cases recorded and more than 3,400 deaths (mortality rate of around 7%). France, for its part, today records 22,637 cases, for just over 1,100 deaths (mortality rate of around 4.8%).
And then we have Germany, which records 35,353 cases this Wednesday for "only" 181 deaths, a death rate of around 0.5% . How can this trend across the Rhine be explained? Here are some answers.
The German authorities recognized the disease very early on in their country and, as early as the end of January, decided to implement large-scale screening tests . All independent laboratories were also called upon to participate. According to the Robert Koch Institute, which is leading the fight against the epidemic, about 12,000 tests are carried out daily in the country.
Whoever wants to be tested is not tested, but the appearance of symptoms coupled with contact with a confirmed case or a person returning from a risk area is generally sufficient.
This method, also developed in South Korea, has therefore enabled German doctors to diagnose patients more quickly and isolate the cases most at risk . Thus, the spread of the virus could be reduced among the most vulnerable people.
Germany has more than 25,000 intensive care beds with respiratory assistance, while France has only 7,000 and Italy less than 5,000. These capacities should even be doubled in the coming weeks, the German authorities have indicated.
Diagnosed patients are therefore quickly taken care of for the moment. and the intensive care units are not saturated, as is the case in particular in Italy or France (Grand-Est).
The first patients diagnosed across the Rhine in January were young people returning from winter sports in Italy. The disease has therefore mainly spread, through contact, through a relatively young and healthy population . As a result, in Germany today, more than 70% of infected people are between 20 and 50 years old .
Even though we know that everyone can be affected by Covid-19 mortality, younger people who do not suffer from chronic illness are still generally more robust.
Be careful though. As a reminder, nearly 25% of the German population is over 60 . This is why the authorities fear that the number of his deaths will increase sharply in the coming days.
Finally, we should also point out that, unlike Italy or France, Germany does not carry out any post-mortem test for the coronavirus. This means that when a person dies at home and not in hospital, their case will have a good chance of not being taken into account in the statistics.
Source
