Germany Has Relatively Few Deaths From Coronavirus. Why?

When faced with the coronavirus pandemic, a number of countries around the world "opted for delayed containment strategies," but countries such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, which took the opposite approach, have seen more success with mitigating the spread. The governments in these countries implemented many aggressive initiatives that were aimed at widespread testing, restricted travel, and contact tracing.

Countries such as Ireland are looking to South Korea for lessons about best practices in containing the coronavirus outbreak. Much of South Korea's success, shaped by lessons learned from battling the MERS outbreak in 2003, comes from implementing the national infectious diseases control act that "allows for the government to track people, and for the tracking information to be posted online."

As countries around the world work to slow the spread of coronavirus, several places including Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Macau have reported success from a handful of methods. Mass testing is a common factor throughout each, but financial incentives for self-quarantine, temperature checks at small businesses, and complimentary hand sanitizersr are a few other solutions that have shown promise.

South Korea's nationwide coronavirus testing measures are showing that the death rate for the virus may not be as high as initially reported while also offering lessons to other countries about the best practices for mitigating epidemics. Although the United States is now beginning to utilize partnerships to address limited testing procedures, South Korea's response allowed for patients to be diagnosed an an earlier and faster rate.

As the coronavirus outbreak began to show signs of spreading the United States, six counties in the Bay Area of California quickly instituted stay at home and shelter-in-place orders. Although the virus is still spreading in much of the country, the early and aggressive measures taken in this region are believed to have contributed to the lower-than-expected caseload reported by hospitals in these counties.

After learning of the first cases of coronavirus that weren't contracted by direct exposure or from foreign travel, officials in Washington took quick and strict measures to start introducing social distancing, which may have helped slow the transmission. Although the hospitals are low on supplies, they have not yet been "overrun," indicating that modeling and widespread testing, along with limiting human-to-human interactions and gatherings, were all beneficial parts of the strategy to slow the spread.

Although Germany has a high amount of coronavirus cases, their death toll is less than comparable countries which can be attributed to widespread testing and a prepared health care system. The hospitals have been able to avoid a "mass influx of patients at the same time," due to a large number of dedicated intensive care units and repurposing military facilities to increase capacity.

New Rochelle, New York, took early and strong measures to contain the COVID19 outbreak – closing schools, banning large gatherings, opening drive-thru testing. And while it’s still early, those measures are showing indications of success, slowing the rate of increased cases and moderating the influx of cases on the area’s health care system.

As countries continue to try to contain the coronavirus pandemic, "non-pharmaceutical initiatives" are showing promise as a means to slow the spread. Countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan – all of which enacted travel restrictions, quarantine methods, and social distancing protocols early – have been able to slow the rate of transmission to some degree.

Singapore among several other countries have been able to contain coronavirus by working to stay ahead of the spread, rather than confront the spread as it happens. Using strategies – some partially built after learning from failure during the SARS outbreak – such as rigorous contact tracing to determine who may have come into contact with an infected individual, these countries have shown, "early intervention is key."