The corona virus pandemic is challenging governments and citizens. But there is also news that is positive.
Update from April 8th, 2020: Germany the fifth most affected country - death rate in comparison low
According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, 107,663 coronavirus infections have been reported in Germany to date. This puts the Federal Republic ahead of China (82,809 cases) and Iran (64,586 cases), which were among the most affected countries at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Only France with 110,070 reported coronavirus infections *, Italy with 135,586 cases, Spain with 146,690 reported infections and the USA as the sad leader with 399,929 coronavirus cases report more patients than Germany. The differences in mortality rates are striking: 1.9 percent of Covid-19 patients in Germany die from the consequences of the disease. A small percentage compared to other countries: in China the rate is four percent, in Spain it is 9.9 percent, in the UK 11 percent and in Italy Johns Hopkins University reports a death rate of 12.6 percent.
There are many reasons for these differences. The possibilities of diagnostics , how often a country carries out coronavirus tests and the time at which a country has taken appropriate measures to contain the pandemic play a role, among other things.
Update of March 23, 2020: Antibody formation apparently makes infected people immune to Covid-19
As virologist Christian Drosten from the Charité in Berlin explained in the NDR podcast, animal experiments give reason to assume that people infected with Sars-CoV-2 are already immune to the novel pathogen of the lung disease Covid-19 after surviving infection . A test on rhesus monkeys had shown that after Covid-19 disease * had healed, their bodies produced antibodies against them. As a result, the animals did not become ill when the coronavirus was reinfected or showed a much milder course of the disease. "And that is also what we expect in humans, that we would, I would say, at least for the duration of the pandemic and probably for a time beyond that, we are immune. That is also my working hypothesis for humans", Virologist Drosten said in the podcast. Studies should still follow here.
Article dated March 21, 2020: Of 1,447,466 Covid-19 infections reported worldwide, 308,215 people are considered recovered. They had completely recovered from the Sars CoV-2 infection *. And there is more information that is positive.
Also read : Medicines against Covid-19: University Hospital Erlangen reports successful antibody therapy .
No new infections in China, relatively few deaths in Germany
For the second day in a row (as of March 20, 2020), China no longer reported any new infections nationwide. This does not apply to returnees: As the world reported, 34 new "imported cases" have been registered, that is, diseases that have been detected in people entering China. The population is nevertheless relieved of the success that the strict exit bans and quarantine measures have brought them . Out of 82,809 infected people in China, 77,565 people are considered healthy again. (As of April 8th, 2020)
In Germany, younger people are more often infected with Sars-CoV-2
The virus has been spreading rapidly in Germany since the beginning of March. Since then, 107,663 infections have been reported, resulting in 2,016 deaths, especially within the risk groups *. A relatively low number compared to other countries, so far more than 12 percent of those affected have died in Italy, and the death rate in Germany is 1.9 percent . Why the numbers differ so drastically is still being investigated. One explanation could be that more older people were infected with the virus in Italy: on average, Italian patients were 63 years old, in Germany 47 years.
However, severe courses are also observed in younger people. In order to slow down the spread as much as possible, the federal government calls on social contacts to be avoided as far as possible and, if possible, to work from home.
More sources : https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html; www.spiegel.de; www.welt.de
Read more : Corona virus in Germany - Merkel warns: "Avoid social contacts where possible".
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* Merkur.de and fnp.de belong to the Germany-wide Ippen-Digital editors network .