>>11506957That is not what the RKI (official institute in germany responsible for dealing with epidemic outbreak) says. Three days ago on a press conference, that exact same question popped up and they stated that every patient, who dies after positively tested for COVID-19 is counted as a COVID-19 death.
I agree that the numbers look weird, but I attribute them to two factors:
1) Up until two days ago, they actually tested everyone regardless of symptoms as long as they demanded a test and had some reason to believe they were infected. Now they are prioritizing people who actually show symptoms. Thus their numbers were inflated by many asymptomatic carriers, who seem to be in no medical distress. In Italy the situation seems to be reversed, that they only test the worst cases due to limited testing capabilities. Thus the relative amount of deaths per positive test is much higher.
2) The death numbers are lagging behind by multiple days, due to bureaucratic inefficiencies.
