Germany is now the fourth country in the world to report over 100 000 confirmed cases of coronavirus infections. According to the Johns Hopkins University, the country has recorded 1584 COVID-19 related deaths, this puts the mortality rate at around 1.5%.
Reports say that the daily number of new infections in Germany has dropped for the fourth day in a row on Monday.
Germany’s public health body, the Richard Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, reportedly told CNBC that the country’s low mortality rate should not be seen as a measure of the country’s success in combating the virus just yet.
“First of all, it is far too early to speak of a success story here. Germany — at least at the moment — sees a lower case fatality rate than other countries,” Marieke Degen, a deputy spokeswoman at the RKI, told CNBC.
“There might be many factors contributing to this, one is the affected age groups (so far, older people haven’t been affected that much in Germany, more younger who came back from skiing; however, we see this changing at the moment),” she said.
“Also, we know that it takes a while until patients who fall seriously ill finally die, and we are just at the beginning of events here.”
The RKI’s recommendation of early testing across the country to detect cases and slow the spread of the outbreak has been seen as a contributing factor in Germany’s low COVID-19 mortality rate. According to reports, Germany is estimated to be conducting around 500 000 tests each week.
