Coronavirus: why are so many more people dying in Italy than Germany?

Germany among the countries with the highest number of reported cases – yet its mortality rate is around 0.4 per cent

That sits in stark comparison to worst-hit Italy where hundreds of people have died in recent days

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A face mask placed on The Nymph fountain in Bad Wildungen. Germany has introduced drastic restrictions on public life and strict travel bans as part of efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Photo: DPA

Published: 2:50pm, 23 Mar 2020Updated: 10:06pm, 23 Mar 2020

Germany has stood out during the coronavirus pandemic with an improbably low mortality rate so far – just 92 deaths from the 23,921 cases of infected people recorded as of Sunday.

Has the country been just lucky or are there tangible reasons – such as a strong medical care system and extensive early testing – for the strikingly low case fatality rates compared to the other countries battling Covid-19? Are there demographic reasons with fewer elderly Germans afflicted? Or might there even be intangible factors such as the experience of World War II helping to imbue the more vulnerable senior citizens with an instinct to bunker down and stay away from danger?

Epidemiologists and medical professionals asked about the intriguing German mortality rate of almost 0.4 per cent compared to 9 per cent in Italy (5,476 deaths and 59,138 cases) say they expect both the confirmed cases and deaths to continue spiralling higher as they have elsewhere in the days and weeks ahead.

Even Chancellor Angela Merkel, 65, may have been infected by a doctor who vaccinated her recently, and went into quarantine at her central Berlin flat on Sunday – a stunning announcement that came just after she told a news conference in her offices there would be further public restrictions on the public, limiting the size of groups in public to two.

Medical professionals in Germany are generally loath to put too much faith in numbers they see as preliminary and perhaps misleading with the crisis still unfolding worldwide. There is no gloating or backslapping in Germany over the low rates so far.