Germany increases its coronavirus test rate to 5,00,000 a week

Germany has boosted its coronavirus test rates to 5,00,000 a week, according to a virologist who works at the Institute of Virology at Berlin's Charite University Hospital. Germany has a relatively lower death toll if compared to other European countries, which is now being credited to the extremely large number of laboratory diagnostic tests being carried out in the country. Germany has so far recorded 222 deaths due to coronavirus, on the contrary, other major countries in Europe like France, Spain, Italy have logged in far greater numbers. 

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According to reports, there are currently 35,733 active coronavirus cases in Germany, of which 23 patients remain under critical condition. The total number of confirmed cases that Germany has reported so far stands at 39,502, of which 2,179 cases came in the last 24 hours. Germany's lower house of the parliament on March 25 passed a historic bill of $814 billion to deal with the impact on its economy because of the coronavirus crisis. 

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Coronavirus outbreak

COVID-19 has claimed more than 22,000 lives across the world and has infected nearly 4,88,000 people globally since it first broke out in December 2019. China was the most affected country until last week, however, Italy and Spain have surpassed it to record the most number of deaths anywhere in the world due to COVID-19. The virus is believed to have originated from a seafood market in China's Wuhan city, the epicentre of the disease, where animals were reportedly being traded illegally. 

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France and the United States have also joined the list of countries that have recorded more than 1,000 deaths due to Coronavirus. Health experts believe that the hotspot could soon shift to the United States, where 1,032 people have died so far, out of the 68,489 confirmed cases that the country has recorded since January 2020.

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(Image Credit: AP)