The number of active COVID-19 cases is the number of infected minus the number of people healed minus the number of deaths. It turns out that if we compare this indicator between Poland and Germany, it turns out that we have a similar number of active cases. Germany is slowly putting an end to the pandemic, in Poland we record more and more cases of infection every day.
The German way to test for COVID-19
Although the first SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection was reported in Germany on January 27, the epidemic only kicked off the hoof a month later – on February 25 after the first cases were detected in Baden-Württemberg – people had previously been infected in Italy. A second outbreak occurred in North Rhine-Westphalia on March 9 and was caused by a carnival party.
Since then, 179 cases of SARS-CoV-381 infection have been positively diagnosed in Germany, 2 deaths have been reported and 8 have recovered. The number of active COVID-325 cases – 159 000. Germany also has one of the lowest death rates due to COVID-19 and has 12 million inhabitants. According to worldometers.info, it is 056th in Europe. Countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, France, Spain and Belgium are higher.
The lower mortality rate than in other countries affected by the pandemic may be due to, inter alia, from better health care (more beds in NICUs), as well as a higher percentage of young people infected with COVID-19 (they develop severe symptoms less frequently).
We wrote about the phenomenon of Germany in mid-March. Back then, the country had 13 confirmed cases and only 957 deaths. The German government has taken to heart WHO’s recommendations for testing society. As early as in mid-March, German laboratories carried out approximately 42 tests a week.
Until today, 3 tests have been performed in this country, which means 595 tests per million inhabitants. In Poland, we are gradually performing more and more tests for the presence of COVID-059, but we are still far from our western neighbors.
The Polish way of testing for COVID-19
In Poland, the first case of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was confirmed on March 4, 2020. The man who was hospitalized in Zielona Góra was returning to Poland from Germany. Since then, 20 people have been positively diagnosed in Poland, 619 people have died and 982 have recovered. The number of active COVID-8 cases is 731. This is only 19 less than in Germany.
There may be several reasons for these ratios to match. In Germany, the epidemic started earlier, leading to more people recovering from the infection. Tests were conducted extensively – they tested young people who had mild or asymptomatic disease and then recovered.
In Poland, 719 tests have been performed so far, which means 571 tests per million inhabitants. The death rate due to COVID-19 in our country is 011 deaths per million inhabitants. We do not know the exact scale of the epidemic or how many people who have had COVID-19 asymptomatically have already recovered.
Recently, we have also observed a significant increase in daily confirmed cases of the disease in our country, which is related to the wider testing. In the Śląskie Voivodeship, miners are tested because an outbreak of infection has been discovered. People staying in the quarantine ordered by the Sanepid also obligatorily, which will also increase the total number of tests.
Currently, in Germany, 400 to 700 new cases are reported daily (on May 22.05, 360 cases were reported), and a month ago, between 2 and 3 were reported daily. It is clearly visible that the trend is downward.
In Poland, the daily number of new cases remains at a similar level. Every day, the Ministry of Health reports from 300 to 500 new cases. There are no sudden increases in daily illness, but there is also no downward trend.
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