COVID‐19: Leaving lockdown—Of Schrodinger, cats, testing and masks

Thomson, George Alexander

The COVID-19 pandemic progresses across the globe at pace, bringing lockdown of countries and continents. Over the Easter weekend as well as speculation that lockdown in the UK would need to be extended for a significant period, media attention became focussed on why the UK death rates from COVID-19 are significantly greater than in Germany (1). In a BBC television interview on Easter Sunday (2), Sir Jeremy Farrar who is a senior advisor to both UK and German governments commented that it is likely to be the significantly larger number of tests for SARS-Cov- 2 (the viral cause for COVID-19) undertaken in Germany when compared to the UK. He suggested that through early identification and isolation of cases that Germany, unlike the UK, had been able to contain COVID-19 and hence reduce transmission rates and need for hospitalisation.