Status: 13.12.2021 2:06 p.m.
The EU Commission and the OECD have certified that Germany has responded “appropriately and effectively” to the corona pandemic. The study mainly relates to measures in 2020.
According to an international report, Germany reacted “appropriately and effectively” to the corona pandemic. According to the report of the EU Commission and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Federal Republic was “comparatively well prepared for a health emergency” and quickly activated the national pandemic plan.
According to this, Germany had high capacities for monitoring, detecting and testing diseases. The availability of acute and intensive care beds was not at risk at any time during the first wave of the pandemic, according to the German country profile of the report, which mainly relates to 2020.
Fewer Covid deaths than in other EU countries
Compared to most other EU countries, Germany also had fewer Covid deaths in relation to the population. By the end of August 2021, the death rate was around 1,100 per million inhabitants – the EU average was around 1,590 corona deaths. However, different methods of collecting the data should be taken into account, it said.
The report concludes that the number of corona deaths in the EU is probably higher than the directly recorded cases. This suggests the comparison of the official number of corona deaths – around 800,000 by the end of October 2021 in the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein – with the excess mortality in the long-term average of the death rates.
Many other diseases went undetected
The report also shows the consequences that Corona had on the detection and treatment of other diseases, especially cancer: According to an estimate by the European Cancer Organization, up to a million cases of cancer could have gone undetected due to the pandemic.
In principle, access to medical care in Germany is “generally good,” according to the report. The country has the highest health expenditure in the EU.
There is a need for improvement, among other things, in the prevention of preventable diseases. Although lung cancer accounts for over a fifth of preventable deaths, Germany was the last EU country to ban tobacco advertising on billboards and in cinemas in 2020.