
By mid-January, scientists in Germany had developed a test for a virus in China that had not yet escaped into the global community.
Wuhan – the Chinese epicentre – went into lockdown on January 23, but the rest of the world hadn’t yet cottoned on to the fact that within weeks COVID-19 would have stopped all of our lives as we know it.
But Germany was already preparing.
WATCH: German Chancellor Angela Merkel updating her citizens on social distancing rules. Post continues after video.
Not only did they have a test by January, they were ready to use it just a few weeks later.
A few months down the track and Germany’s neighbours Italy and France were recording astronomically high fatality rates from COVID-19, with Italy recording the most amount of deaths in the entire world.
At the time of writing, Italy has 115,242 cases and nearly 14,000 deaths and France has 59,000 cases and close to 5,500 deaths.
By way of comparison, Germany has 84,794 cases and 1,100 deaths – and they have at least 10-20 million more people than the countries listed above.