In the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the effectiveness of government-ordered measures to contain the pandemic, such as regular testing and the wearing of medical masks, was repeatedly called into question. Through a large-scale analysis of viral genome data, a working group led by DZIF researcher Prof Alice McHardy at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) has now discovered that significantly fewer new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus entered Germany in connection with the introduction of certain measures such as the wearing of medical masks and free access to rapid antigen tests.
The novel coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019 and spread rapidly around the world. The first case in Germany was confirmed in January 2020. In early 2020, SARS-CoV-2 was identified as the cause of the infectious disease COVID-19 and was classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation from spring 2020.
Report HZI
