So while at the beginning of the pandemic mainly people with typical symptoms and contact with a confirmed case were tested, in the past few weeks travelers who have not even had symptoms have been tested on a large scale. Nevertheless, one can see at least a slight increase in positive cases: After the percentage of positive tests had temporarily dropped from nine percent in March to 0.6 percent, it is currently back at just under one percent.
This becomes even clearer if you look at Spain, for example. Here, too, the number of daily tests has doubled in the past few months. The proportion of positive tests has risen to over eight percent, while it was below one percent for a while in June. Spain is clearly experiencing a second wave of infections: In the meantime, over 7,000 corona infections are reported in the country per day, with hardly more than half as many inhabitants as in Germany. So there are more tests, but also more infections - this is also clear
when you look at the numbers in France . Given these numbers, one cannot speak of a “test epidemic”.
But in both Germany and Spain, the number of deaths has so far risen only a little - although the consequences should now be felt. If Covid-19 is fatal, it takes an average of 18 days from the appearance of the first symptoms to death.
More than 1000 new infections were reported to Germany 18 days ago, but currently only one to six people per day die from Covid-19. For comparison: Even in the first week of May there were around 1000 new infections every day in Germany, but 18 days later several hundred corona deaths were counted every day.
The lower number of deaths could also be explained by the fact that doctors now know much better how to treat Covid 19 patients if they have severe courses. For example,
an American study has just shown that the death rate in hospitals can be almost halved if patients are treated with high-dose blood thinners such as heparin. Antiviral drugs such as Remdesivir are also used earlier, and dexamethasone, which prevents the immune response from escalating, is now also part of the standard treatment.
However, this explanation does not apply, at least in Germany, because there are currently only few severe cases in which such treatment would be necessary at all. In mid-April, at the height of the epidemic, there were 2,679 patients with Covid-19 in the intensive care units in Germany according to the
DIVI intensive care register, in mid-May there were still 1,294.
In contrast, there are currently 246, almost as many as six weeks ago. “An unresolved question is why we have so much less difficult processes,” says Gerd Antes.
