Monday, March 30, 2020

Germany and the Coronavirus: 30 March 2020

1.  Deaths: 456 (Focus numbers), Infected: 58,654.  Bavaria now leads the 16 states with infections...just over 13,000.  Death lead is by Baden-Wurttemberg (126).  One odd thing that has been pointed out on procedures on deaths.  If you died in a car accident in Spain....they test you and if you are positive, they list your death by the Coronavirus....NOT by the accident.  Same if you were in last stage of cancer, to pass away.....the body will be tested and if Coronavirus comes up....that's what the death certificate will show.  In Germany....you are listed by the actual outcome of your life (cancer is cancer.....murder is murder....etc).  This may explain why Italy and Spain have such high death rates, and Germany does not.

2.  NRW (the state) is drafting up a law that would cancel final exams at all secondary schools in the state for 2020.  Very extreme measure.

3.  Starting today (Mon), billions of Euro will be released to small-time business people (if they apply) as part of the effort to keep them going.

4.  Pete Altmaier (government Minister of Economics) spoke up last night on Anne Will....says the worst possible thing would be to open up totally for business, then a period later (two weeks....two months)....shutting down again.  That, as he suggests....cannot be the gameplan.

5.   Political survey I noticed this morning....says that on the charts....the CDU (Merkel's party) and the SPD (the left-of-center party) would now together achieve 50-percent of the national vote if the election occurred.  The Greens and AfD have lost a fair number of votes over the past month.  All of this because of confidence in the coalition government.

6. The major hospital in Wolfsburg has shut down admissions....they reached maximum capacity (first German hospital to admit this).

7.  Tests now coming up for airports.  If you were to fly in....you'd be directed to some point and be tested, with results coming up in 2.5 hours.  Hard to imagine how this would work at Frankfurt, and how they would 'herd' you into some waiting area.  No idea yet on when airports would open anyway.

8.  Germany's 'Masked-Singer' show shut down in the middle of the season.  Two of their folks are quarantined.

9.  If you look at graphical charts at N-TV (commercial German TV news).....the infection rate has leveled off in the past 7 days.  High point was the 5th of March, but the last seven days have been going extremely low.  I won't say it's at a point to be happy but once you hit Easter and the rate continues....it'd be the time to remove most rules.

10.  German death rate against infected rate......is .8-percent (compared to Spain's 8.4-percent or France's 6.8-percent).  It should be noted....Japan's infected rate has yet to hit more than 1,866 and it's death rate is 56.

11.  Great story on N-TV about the German research unit for infectious diseases....on the island of Riems....just off the German coast.  Worth reading up on the unit.

12.  Some talk exists that the 10-year real estate 'boom' has hit a peak point, and will fall a bit in 2020 because of the virus.  Prices decreasing?  People are careful not to suggest the amount or percentage of price-cuts coming.  A lot of people are stuck in mortgages which they can't cover, with the current shut-down of business operations.  It wouldn't shock me to see some 400k Euro upscale condo units going for 10-to-20 percent off....just to avoid serious financial issues.  But here's the thing....this economic downturn has a limit.

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