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Europe
2020.04.18 19:55 GMT+8
How do different countries calculate their COVID-19 death rates?
Updated 2020.04.18 19:55 GMT+8
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Daniel Harries
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COVID-19 death rates can spike many weeks or months after the virus has apparently retreated, as seen in Wuhan, China. Due to updated reporting it raised its official Covid-19 death toll by 50 percent, adding 1,290 fatalities,
Comparing and compiling data around death rates can be difficult as countries use a variety of methods to record it. Some record solely deaths of those who have been tested and that occurred in hospital while other nations include those who have died in care homes and/or the deaths of all those, in any settings, who are suspected of having COVID-19.
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In an attempt to quantify the rate at which care home residents are dying from the virus, the London School for Economics (LSE) has conducted a study that suggests around 50 percent of deaths are of the elderly in care homes.
If their findings - based on data from France, Belgium and Spain among others - are extrapolated to all countries affected by the pandemic then it suggests that the death rate is significantly higher than in countries which don't include care home deaths in their death rates.
How do different countries record their death rates?
Germany
The nation's 16 federal states are currently reporting deaths inside and outside hospitals as a single number, to the country's public health body, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). Gender, age and underlying medical conditions are also provided to RKI. Work on a breakdown between hospital and non-hospital deaths is underway but this information is not yet available.
At 2.7 percent Germany has a low death rate when compared to other European nations, although the rate has been climbing in recent weeks. Health officials have noted the spread of COVID-19 in care homes which could help explain the rising mortality rate. In Germany, 87 percent of all deaths, but only 18 percent of all cases, occur in those over 70-years-old.
Germany's case numbers include those who died "of" COVID-19, and those who died "with" the disease, in accordance with the Infection Protection Act. Or as RKI head Lothar Wieler puts it, "a corona death is someone who was proven to have a coronavirus infection." Which is not the same as actually dying from it. Making Germany's relatively low figures all the more impressive.
Back in the day when “mass testing wasn’t appropriate for a rich country like us” (Harries, 2020), did we ever get round to adding those missed at the start?
