More than 10 times as many people in Germany as thought may have been infected with coronavirus, researchers have said.
Researchers from Bonn University said on Monday that their preliminary study, based on fieldwork in the town of Gangelt in Heinsberg municipality, which had one of Germany’s highest death tolls, showed the risk of infection by asymptomatic carriers. The researchers concluded from a random sample of 919 people that about 15% of Gangelt’s population had been infected, with a fatality rate of 0.37%. Extrapolating nationwide, they said about 1.8 million people living in Germany may have contracted the virus, against 160,000 confirmed cases so far. Also read: Brown skin and Ink – Pakistan’s changing relationship with tattoos