BERLIN – For weeks, virologists here have been asked a persistent question: Why, compared to other countries, are so few of the Germans who are diagnosed with coronavirus dying?
In Italy, 9.5% of the people who have tested positive for the virus have succumbed to covid-19, according to data compiled at the Johns Hopkins University. In France, the rate is 4.3%. But in Germany, it’s 0.4%.
The biggest reason for the difference, infectious disease experts say, is Germany’s work in the early days of its outbreak to track, test and contain infection clusters. That means Germany has a truer picture of the size of its outbreak than places that test only the obviously symptomatic, most seriously ill or highest-risk patients.
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