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Germany Staggers World With Low COVID-19 Death Rate

Leonie Kijewski

   BREMEN, GERMANY -- While countries around the world struggle with a
   lack of hospital beds and equipment for coronavirus patients, German
   cities such as Bremen have taken in patients from neighboring
   countries.
   On a recent Saturday, Bremen received its first two French coronavirus
   patients from Strasbourg as Germany's neighbor France struggles with
   hospitals at their limits.
   The city could theoretically take more patients from abroad, hospital
   group Gesundheit Nord spokeswoman Karen Matiszick told local news
   outlet Buten un Binnen -- although the situation could rapidly change.
   Bremen currently has had 567 cases and 24 deaths, according to official
   statistics.
   The capacity to take in patients has been attributed to the lower
   number of cases that need intensive care, and Germany's comparatively
   low death rate has caught the world's attention.
   Of the more than 130,000 diagnosed cases in Germany, about 3,900 people
   have died as of Friday. In contrast, the U.S., Italy, Spain and France
   have each recorded more than 10,000 deaths linked to the disease. In
   Italy alone, more than 20,000 deaths have been registered -- among
   160,000 cases.
   Susanne Glasmacher, a spokesperson for government's Robert Koch
   Institute, pointed to multiple factors.
   "At the beginning, the majority of affected people in Germany didn't
   belong to a risk group, as many of the transmission paths happened
   during ski holidays, on international travels, carnival, and other
   festivities," she told VOA.
   The median age of diagnosed cases is comparatively low in Germany at
   49, compared to Italy's 62.
   The average age of those who have died from the virus in Germany is
   about 80, and 87% of the deceased patients were older than 70.
   Similarly, 83.7% of those in Italy who died were older than 70,
   according to the Italian National Institute of Health.
   In recent weeks, though, an increasing number of cases in German
   nursing homes have raised concern. Forty-one people have died in a
   single nursing home in the north German city of Wolfsburg as of
   Thursday. Hundreds of nursing homes across the country have found their
   first cases.
   "If more transmissions take place in homes for elderly people or
   hospitals, it's to be feared that the rate increases," Glasmacher said.
   The current low median age of German cases can to an extent be
   explained because of the number of tests conducted. Glasmacher said
   that Germany had tested on a much larger scale than other countries.
   "Infections get recognized in more people with mild symptoms than in
   other countries where sometimes only severely ill people in hospitals
   are tested," she said.
   With a current weekly capacity of about 500,000 tests, Germany is also
   testing those only showing mild symptoms and those who have not been in
   known contact with coronavirus cases.

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