Germany, the country on right track to fight Covid-19
Germany looked at the crisis developing in other countries and made sure its healthcare system is ready. They have been hoarding test kits and respirators after seeing the worlwide condition.
Germany is among some of the few left European nations who still has't announced nationwide lockdown. On the contrary, the country is witnessing favourable circumstances rather than other European countries that have supposedly better healthcare system than Germany.
Germany has ordered for strict social-distancing measures, including a ban on gatherings of more than two people. Only the state of Bavaria, which discovered first Covid-19 has been under full lockdown, reports Independent.
Until now, Germany has 35,714 confirmed cases including 181 deaths from Covid-19, which is proportionately very less than Italy having 69,000 positive cases where 6,800 have died and in Spain 47,000 people being positive among whom 3,400 have died.
Experts have said, the reason behind low mortality rate in Germany is coronavirus mainly has infected the youths of the country - who brought the virus from carnivals and ski trips in Italy and Austria. And since elderly people usually don't live with younger people in Germany, the demography of infected people is significantly skewed towards the young.
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's main agency for disease control, the average age of those who have tested positive for coronavirus is 47 years old.
Germany has also looked at the crisis developing in other countries and made sure its healthcare system is ready. They have been hoarding test kits and respirators after seeing the worldwide condition.
"We have been on high alert since January, when the first cases were detected, and we have had time to prepare," says Professor Marilyn Addo, head of infectious diseases at University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf.
The high levels of preparation opened Germany's door to assist Italy on this crisis as six Italian patients arrived at Germany on March 24, to avail treatment of Covid-19.
Despite Germany having one of the most robust public health systems in the world, spending $5182 per capita on healthcare - experts are still afraid they might not be so good at handling if the number rises in the amount to Italy's.
As Professor Addo added, "Everyone is holding their breath right now and seeing what happens next," she concludes, adding that if admissions jump to 20 a day or more at her hospital, then they may "start to struggle".
Another reason for low infected rate is that Germany has been able to test a massive number of population even who had minor reasons to get infected with the virus. This is something that people in other countries are accusing their government - of not having adequate testing kits. The German doctors' association estimates that more than 200,000 coronavirus tests have been run in the past weeks.
According to the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, it is too early to say how infection and mortality rates may shift in the coming weeks. As a spokesperson said, "It is very important to remember that, in Germany, we are at the very beginning of the epidemic. We are seeing more and more deaths and we don't know how everything will develop."