Despite having the world’s fifth highest tally of COVID-19 infections, Germany’s death rate has remained strikingly low compared to other nations. But German Ambassador Emily Haber says it is still far too early for her country to declare victory.
According to a study from Johns Hopkins University, Germany’s case load totaled over 107,000 as of Tuesday with just 1,983 reported deaths and over 36,000 recovering. That works out to a death toll is hovering around 1.8%, compared to a mortality rate of 12% in Italy and 10% in Spain.
Germany’s infected population is doubling every 12 days, down from a few weeks ago when the infection rate was doubling every 3 days, Ms. Haber said told a Washington briefing Tuesday.
Yet, despite the positive signs, the ambassador says German experts believe the spread has not yet reached its peak, and it is still too early tell if Germany’s approach to containing the virus has proven successful.
Still, public health experts are already eyeing Germany as a possible role model for countries yet to experience the peak fury of the global pandemic. Key to Berlin’s approach, say public health specialists, has been testing for the virus — early, often and everywhere.
“Our strategy was comprehensive testing all over the country, not only in certain affected regions,” Ms. Haber said.
“It’s not that we did things better or differently,” she noted. “We are affected as any other country is, but we had a health care system and a pandemic strategy in place that we could refer to quickly.”
When COVID-19 first appeared in Italy, Ms. Haber said, German experts health officials began developing tests proactively. Even before the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, German doctors were prepared to administer tests to residents all throughout the nation.
In addition to proactive testing, German officials used the devastating experience of Italy and Spain to get a “head start” on mitigation measures like quarantine and social distancing, Ms. Haber said.
While the virus crisis has exacerbated strains in the European Union alliance, the German envoy said it is critical now that European nations work together moving forward.
“In the initial phase on the crisis, European countries, including mine, reacted first by being inward looking and focusing on how to deal with the crisis nationally,” Ms. Haber said. “I guess it’s like an airplane when you are requested to put on your mask first and then take care of your neighbors, so this is what happened in the initial weeks of the crisis.”
About 40% of Germany’s 40,000 ICUs are in use right now, and with a surplus of available beds and ventilators, German doctors have admitted more than 200 coronavirus patients from France and Italy into hospitals for treatment, Ms. Haber said. Teams of German doctors are also being deployed to more vulnerable areas in the EU, and Germany has played a significant role in delivering medical supplies to countries in desperate need, Ms. Haber added.
Ms. Haber said German officials share the skepticism of top Trump administration figures about China’s handling of the coronavirus crisis and apparent efforts now by Beijing to spread disinformation about the origins and handling of the pandemic. China, she said, appeared to be taking a page out of the “Russian playbook” in promoting false accounts about the crisis.
“We cannot accept if China instrumentalizes the crisis now in order to sow divisions, in order to place false narratives, and in order to put out there divisive narratives targeting discussions we are having in our countries,” Ms. Haber said.
With a PhD in history, the veteran German diplomat said she sees a number of parallels between the current crisis and 1918 global influenza pandemic. After the fallout of World War I, nations were skeptical of sharing information, and this ultimately led to the death of 50 million people worldwide as experts struggled to find a cure.
To curb the spread of the coronavirus worldwide, Ms. Haber said nations must cooperate as teammates, practicing transparency for the sake of common good.
“There is a lot of lack of knowledge and lack of transparency for want of capacity, that’s one thing,” she said. “But a lack of transparency that’s intentional and will harm other countries is something that cannot be accepted and should be called out.”
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