Reasons Germany Can Start Treating Patients From Other Countries

Illustration (Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Germany has started accepting positive patients for the corona virus or COVID-19 from Italy and France, countries with the most severe spread of the virus in Europe. Germany is one of the countries where the death rate from this virus is quite low compared to other European countries.

As reported by Fox News, it was seen that a German air force plane landed in Bergamo, northern Italy to pick up six patients who were going to Cologne.

Previously, several state governments in Germany had offered to help treat patients from Italy. The total number of patients to be treated by Germany from Italy is 47 people.

In Italy, as noted by the Italian national medical federation (FNOMCeO), 50 doctors have died from COVID-19 as of March 29 as quoted by the Independent.

This figure appears because medical personnel are still struggling under the pressure of the large number of COVID-19 cases. As is well known, Italy is the country with the second most COVID-19 cases after the United States. As of this writing, 97,689 cases were recorded with 10,779 deaths, while 13,030 people recovered.

Apart from Italy, Germany also brought patients from the city of Mulhouse, France. There the hospital is overwhelmed by the number of cases that exist.

Previously, it was reported that medical personnel there were not ready to fight against COVID-19. This was said by one of the emergency department doctors Sabrina Ali Benali to Euronews.

"We have found a way to get masks. But that's all we have. We don't have disposable protective clothing, or stock of hand sanitizers, hair protectors, glasses and shoes," he said in mid-March.

Benali also said the majority of health workers in France were under the same pressure. "I see that we are all in the same situation. I have received similar news from nurses who say they went to war unarmed," he said.

The French health system has been in crisis for months. Thousands of medical workers had strikes there, they protested about the cut in the budget for handling the outbreak. This clearly made the medics there feel threatened by their safety.

In France, the number of positive cases of COVID-19 reached 40,708 people, with the death rate reaching 2,611, while there were 7,226 people who recovered.

The reason for the low German death rate

Germany's intention to help treat COVID-19 patients in other countries deserves thumbs up. In fact, Germany itself is not a country that has a few cases of COVID-19.

Germany is the country with the fifth highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world. The total number of cases was 62,095. But the great thing is that Germany is able to reduce the death rate to a very low number compared to other countries where the number of cases is almost the same.

Compared with the number of deaths in France of 2,611 people, and Italy as many as 10,779, in Germany the number of deaths was only 541 people.

According to the Sky News report, there are three main factors why Germany managed to reduce the death rate. First is because they carry out mass testing quickly and accurately, second is because there are not many infected parents there, and lastly because the number of access to hospital beds in Germany is the second highest in Europe.

Germany is the country that has successfully tested more COVID-19. As a result, they identified more people infected with the corona virus with milder symptoms.

By identifying people who are infected more and more quickly, Germany also quickly isolates people who have been infected, and carries out medical treatment.

Illustration (Unsplash)

Then another factor that makes the death rate in Germany very small is because there are very few elderly people who are infected with COVID-19. In Germany only 19 percent of people over the age of 60 are infected. Meanwhile, the most infected were in the age range of 35 to 59 years, namely 51 percent.

The reason is, according to statistics, the most people who die from COVID-19 are aged 70 years and over. For example, in Italy, it was recorded that the age with the highest mortality rate was in the age range over 70 years.

The ultimate factor why the death rate for COVID-19 cases is low in Germany is due to their very adequate health facilities. Germany is recorded as the second country with the highest level of access to hospital beds. It is recorded that of the 100,000 population, the number of beds available is around 621. This figure is slightly different from the country with the most access to beds, namely Lithuania, which is 634 out of 100,000 population.