A Germany anomaly? Why the death rate there is strikingly low.

Central Berlin on Wednesday.Credit...Emile Ducke for The New York Times

Germany has reported more than 91,000 coronavirus infections and over 1,200 deaths. But thanks to widespread testing and other measures, its percentage of fatal cases — 1.3 percent — has been remarkably low.

By contrast, the rate is about 10 percent in Spain, France and Britain, 4 percent in China and 2.5 percent in the United States. Even South Korea, a model of flattening the curve, has a rate of 1.7 percent.

So why is Germany’s number so low? One reason, experts say, is that it has been administering around 350,000 coronavirus tests a week, far more than any other European country. That means it finds more infected people with few or no symptoms, which “lowers the death rate on paper,” said Hans-Georg Kräusslich, the head of virology at University Hospital in Heidelberg.

Another is that the average age of those infected, 49, is lower than in many other countries. Many of Germany’s early patients caught the virus in Austrian and Italian ski resorts and were relatively young and healthy.

Chancellor Angela Merkel returned to her office on Friday, ending 14 days in quarantine after a doctor who had given her a vaccine tested positive. Her approval ratings have jumped over her government’s handling of the crisis.

“Maybe our biggest strength in Germany,” said Professor Kräusslich, “is the rational decision-making at the highest level of government combined with the trust the government enjoys in the population.”

Reference: NY Times