As many as 60 to 70 percent of Germans will be infected with the deadly coronavirus, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned on Tuesday.
While addressing a parliamentary group meeting of her Christian Democratic Union party in Berlin, Merkel said that 58 million Germans could contract the disease if it spiraled out of control, local newspaper Bild reported citing insiders.
Reportedly, the German Parliament fell completely silent when Merkel stated the number.
This echoed numbers forecast by Berlin virologist Christian Drosten, who added that such a total could take 2 years or longer to reach.
But Germanโs Health Minister Jens Spahn pointed out during the meeting that 80 per cent of all infected patients would have almost no symptoms.
Germany has recorded 1,565 coronavirus cases and two deaths so far. It has not yet imposed the kind of quarantine measures seen in Italy, where the entire country has been placed on lockdown.
The World Health Organizationโs director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus claimed that the death rate was higher at 3.4 per cent, although this has been disputed.
If the novel coronavirus has a mortality rate of around 1 per cent, this could equate to over half a million deaths, although new methods of fighting the virus could reduce this number.
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