How Germany is containing COVID-19, reopening with low death rate - Business Insider

On balance, Germany has dealt with its coronavirus outbreak much better than most nations around the world.The peak of its outbreak — the period marked by the highest numbers of new daily infections — came between March 26 and April 3, during which it maintained a death rate far below the likes of Spain and Italy.As Business Insider reported in late March, this was attributed to an early lockdown, swift mass-testing drive, a well-oiled healthcare system, and clear government messaging. In recent weeks, Germany kept testing people en masse, monitoring those who test positive, and kept intensive care units remained well under capacity.It allowed those in the most critical of conditions quick, unfettered access to life-saving apparatus like ventilators."We are seeing half-empty ICUs in Germany," the country's lead epidemiologist, Christian Drosten, said on April 26."This is because we started diagnostics early and on a broad scale, and we stopped the epidemic — that is, we brought the reproduction number below 1."Germany currently has the capacity to test around 838,000 samples for COVID-19 per week, Reuters reported on Tuesday.Those who test positive are supervised closely, even after they return to recover in their homes.In Heidelberg, southwestern Germany, medics were driving around the city checking in on those recently diagnosed with COVID-19, taking blood tests and checking to see if they had deteriorated, The New York Times reported in April.Drosten, who is director of Berlin's Institute of Virology, added he was concerned the lockdown had worked so well that some citizens didn't understand the dangers of the virus.Indeed, protests against the lockdown popped up across Germany on April 25.