Germany was able to develop one of the first diagnostic tests for COVID-19 at Berlin’s Charité hospital in January 2020. Due to the early development of the test and the unique level of laboratories that have the expertise, accreditation, and equipment to conduct PCR assays and quickly deliver diagnoses, Germany was able to ramp up their production in tests. The government had further facilitated the production by mandating that all insurance companies pay for COVID-19 tests on February 28. As a result, Germany was able to provide for mass proactive testing to isolate symptomatic and asymptomatic Covid-19 patients.

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- Testing
- Contact Tracing
- Antibody Testing

Germany's effort to detect Covid-19

Testing Policies Organized by Country

Our World in Data. 2020. Emerging COVID-19 Success Story: Germany’S Strong Enabling Environment. https://ourworldindata.org/covid-exemplar-germany    
   Accessed 14 July 2020.

Emerging COVID-19 success story: Germany’s strong enabling environment

Testing in Germany

Careful examination through a combination of epidemiological methods such as interviews and whole-genome sequencing had allowed the health authorities and scientists to break the first outbreak in Bavaria at the end of January. Even when the number of cases grew exponentially in Germany, tremendous efforts were still conducted to contact tracing for every single case, despite a lack of staff. Voluntary science projects were also launched to complement the government’s efforts.

Contact Tracing in Germany

Some of the world’s first COVID-19 antibody studies were conducted by scientists at the University of Bonn in Gangelt, Germany. As part of its long-term strategy, RKI has announced a three-pronged approach to gathering data about community spread in the hope that the data will help shape more sensitive policies in the future.

Antibody Testing in Germany

 As more visitors from China began testing positive for Covid-19,
The Korea Center for Disease Control & Prevention (KCDC) rapidly increased the number of local screening centers around January 28.  Following this expansion, Medical staff working on a local and national level were able to conduct 15,000 laboratory tests per day as of February 28, 2020. The Korean government covers the cost for testing those with suspected symptoms or in recent contact with confirmed cases; anyone else can pay 150,000 KRW (~125 USD) to get tested, with fees reimbursable from the nation's single-payer health care system.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare provided a regularly updated list of locations which offered testing which now offers information about the form of testing available.  Testing can notably come in the form of walk through or drive through.  

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