The number of coronavirus patients in Germany looks set to reach 70,000 by the end of this week, the president of the German Hospital Federation predicted on Wednesday
BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th March, 2020) The number of coronavirus patients in Germany looks set to reach 70,000 by the end of this week, the president of the German Hospital Federation predicted on Wednesday.
The Robert Koch Institute for disease control has recorded 31,554 cases of COVID-19, more than 4,000 than on Tuesday. The death toll stands at 149.
"I estimate that we are on the way toward having some 70,000 confirmed infection cases by the end of the week," Gerald Gass told the Funke media group.
He said the real number could be ten times higher than the official statistics because many cases likely went unreported.
"We expect that in the medium term the infection rate will slow down due to social distancing. But it will not have a significant impact on the number of registered infection cases before the start to the middle of next week," he added.
The German parliament passed the government's debt-financed supplementary budget bill earlier in the day that will allow new borrowing of $168 billion to cushion the blow from the coronavirus outbreak to the economy.
