Germany Has Relatively Few Deaths From Coronavirus. Why? – The New York Times

First and foremost: Early and persistent testing helps. And so does tracking people.

Take the countrys first recorded case. On Jan. 28, a man in Bavaria who works for a car parts company that has two plants in Wuhan, China, was confirmed to have the virus. Within two days, the authorities identified the person who had infected the patient, tracked his contacts and quarantined them. The company stopped travel to China and shut down its plant in Bavaria. The outbreak several other employees tested positive was effectively contained. Across the country, the pattern was repeated. Local health departments and federal authorities worked together to test, track and quarantine exposed citizens.

Germany has also been better at protecting its older residents, who are at much greater risk. States banned visits to the elderly, and policymakers issued urgent warnings to limit contact with older people. Many seem to have quarantined themselves. The results are clear: Patients over the age of 80 make up around 3 percent of the infected, though they account for 7 percent of the population. The median age for those infected is estimated to be 46; in Italy, its 63.

And many more young people in Germany have tested positive for the virus than in other countries. In part, thats attributable to the countrys more extensive testing. But theres also an element of chance and culture. Germany is a skiing nation around 14.5 million Germans go skiing every year and the Austrian and northern Italian Alps are popular locations. This year, after vacationers traveled to one of the centers of the European outbreak, Tyrol, they seemed to bring back the virus with them and spread it.

Closer to home, theres carnival. One of the most substantial early outbreaks occurred at one of the centers of carnival, which involves parades and parties, popular with the young. Hundreds of cases seem to be traceable to a couple who took part in festivities in the town of Langbroich. Both skiing and carnival may have affected the low average age of the first wave of confirmed cases, said Karl Lauterbach, a physician and a member of the Bundestag.

Both early testing and incubation of the virus among the young go part of the way in explaining why the countrys fatality rate is so comparatively low. Its how much and whom we test, Martin Strmer, a virologist who is the director of a lab that is running coronavirus testing in Frankfurt, told me. In general, countries that test less and reserve it for those already very ill, like Italy, have higher fatality rates.

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Germany Has Relatively Few Deaths From Coronavirus. Why? - The New York Times