Germany: then the country has faced the crown crisis

The roar of hammer blows and drills has echoed in the large fairground area of ​​Berlin in the spring. In record speed, Exhibit Room 26 has been transformed into an emergency hospital ready to receive seriously ill covid-19 patients. The model is located in Chinese Wuhan, where there are new hospitals built in just a few days. It was not so fast in Berlin, but after four weeks, 500 hospital beds were ready to receive patients with respiratory problems. An additional 500 places can be used if necessary, as in many other cities in Germany where similar clinics have been opened.

The fact that hospitals have come so fast is considered a small sensation, especially in Berlin, where new construction can take time. The BER docking airport has become a trauma. The inauguration has been postponed no less than five times and the plan is for it to open in the fall, more than nine years late.

Therefore, the timely opening of the reserve hospital in Exhibition Hall number 26 was a surprise. An almost equally surprising surprise is that the hospital is empty.

So far, not a single patient has been enrolled.

Two months later The fact that one dog, Angela Merkel, warned that seven out of ten Germans are infected with covid-19 has the avalanche of patients that authorities feared for her absence. Despite its central European location, Germany has low death rates, many vacant intensive care sites, and massive tests that are drawing interest from the outside world. Germany has reported 9.24 deaths per capita per 100,000 population, which is significantly less than in neighboring France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, as well as Italy, the United Kingdom, and Sweden (see box), to name a few countries. Despite extensive testing, the number of new cases of covid-19 is declining steadily and in Berlin, with just under four million residents, only two new cases were found on Monday and none died. On Wednesday, Germany, which closed its borders in mid-March, announced that they will gradually open starting Saturday.

German measures to reduce the spread of infection can be described as a midpoint between the extremes of Europe: more difficult than that of Sweden, but at the same time gentler than in countries where there was almost a total curfew. It will be a while before it becomes clear which strategy has been the most successful and experts will continue to discuss why some countries hit harder than others. But clearly Germany seems to have handled the first phase of the pandemic well.

Why have they been successful so far?

Some want to highlight Angela Merkel’s background as a physics researcher as an explanation for Germany’s success. Its popularity has skyrocketed during the crisis, and few doubt the chancellor’s ability to pick up numbers and charts. He also seems to enjoy standing out in the company of other investigators and doesn’t have to waste time on things that fill the calendar in ordinary cases: marathon dinners with high-ranking politicians and visits to some local association of Christian Democratic pensioners.

But it is far from Merkel’s credit that the death toll has been reduced and the spread of infection has been reduced. Even before the crown crisis, Germany had the most intensive care units per capita of all EU countries (29 places per 100,000 inhabitants compared to, for example, Sweden, which had 5.8 places, according to a study published in Intensive Care Medicine). The number of ordinary closed care places was also much higher than in other countries. So many, that there have been plans to close smaller hospitals and unprofitable clinics to save money. That debate has now been silenced.

Instead, hospitals that leave nursing homes empty while waiting for covid-19 patients have received generous reimbursements from the state (equivalent to just over SEK 6,000 per day and medical care), contributing to four of ten intensive care locations are vacant. Like all beds in the new emergency hospital in Exhibition Hall number 26 in Berlin. As a result, Germany has considered it possible to alleviate medical care in countries that have been most affected. During the spring, a German military plane recovered hundreds of intensive care patients from Italy and France, among others, who were treated in German hospitals, and complete medical teams were sent abroad.

Read more: Seriously ill crown patients from Italy receive intensive care in Germany

– Test, test, test. In testing each suspect case, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in mid-March.

The German authorities brought him to the tail. Since then, the country has developed phenomenal testing capacity with the goal of conducting 4.5 million tests per week. While countries like Sweden in particular evaluate patients and healthcare professionals, Germany is emerging as a bulldozer. After it became known last week that several employees at a slaughterhouse in Coesfeld, in western Germany, became infected with covid-19, they had to send 1,200 samples from staff immediately. About 200 were carriers of the infection. Another example is the mass testing of residents in a high-rise building in Grevenbroich in western Germany in April. After it was discovered that two families infected with covid-19 violated the quarantine rules, the 450 neighbors had to send samples. Eight tested positive and were isolated.

But Germany’s success also carries a paradox, to quote the country’s leading virologist, Christian Drosten. More and more Germans wonder why they should sit inside when it seems to have gone so well for the country. In the past few weeks, restrictions have also been eased at a rapid pace, and stores, gyms, and most schools are now allowed to remain open. Despite Angela Merkel’s disturbing warnings, the parks and squares are once again filled with bored, sun-thirsty Germans who yearn for a normal life.

At the same time, the breeding number, the so-called R number, has slipped over line 1 several days in a row, which may be a sign that the spread of the infection is gaining momentum again.

Some decimals have raised the question that few people can think of right now. It is whether the measures have been in vain. Although the Institute of Infectious Diseases notes that one should not stray too far from the conclusions of the R, it remains to be seen how long the German successes will last.

And how long until medical places can be left empty.

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