How German labs do 500,000 checks a week
GERMANY has boosted its virus testing capacity to 500,000 people a week – more than ten times that of the UK.
The astonishing scale partly explains the country’s 0.5 per cent death rate.
By comparison, Italy’s fatalities rate is around ten per cent and Spain’s 7.3 per cent.
In Britain 4.8 per cent of recorded cases have died.
Christian Drosten, head of the Institute of Virology at Berlin’s Charite University Hospital, said: ‘The reason why Germany has so few deaths compared to the number of infected people is because we carry out an extremely large number of laboratory diagnostic tests. Estimates show we are carrying out half a million a week.’
In Germany, anyone with symptoms can get a test – with most covered by the health insurance system.
This is made possible by the country’s large number of private laboratories. Germany has a population of 83 million and its health system, one of the most developed in the world, is yet to be stretched by the outbreak.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has imposed tough lockdown measures to stem the virus.
But experts believe mortality rates could soon rise because it is largely only younger people who have so far become infected. The vast majority who tested positive were under 60.
In Britain, testing is done by state-owned labs run by Public Health England or the NHS.
It has tested 100,000 people so far and officials have pledged to increase capacity to 10,000 a day by the end of this week. Eventually they are aiming for 250,000 a day.
Last night ministers struck a deal with Swiss drugs giant Roche Diagnostics to provide two rapid testing machines – boosting capacity by 5,000 a day by the end of April.
‘Huge numbers of private tests’