This is the inquiry on the BBC World Service with me, Kavita Puri.

Each week, one question, four expert witnesses and an answer.

civil catchinstein was at home one evening reading an article. It was by an Italian doctor saying a tsunami was about to hit his hospital.

It was then she knew it wasn't long before the COVID-19 wave would hit Germany.

Sibbles a family doctor with a surgery in Berlin.

She didn't have any masks to protect herself from the infectious disease, so she quickly made alternative arrangements.

With the help of her brother, she designed a door. It had a glass window and a draw. The patient could sit on one side, she on the other. They

could swap themselves as civil superv supervised the procedure.

It meant she could start testing for the coronavirus safely straight away.

Sybels was a novel initiative, one of the many actions taken early on in the pandemic in Germany.

Their latest death toll is over 7,500 for a population of over 80 million.

Other European countries like the UK, France, Italy and Spain

with far smaller populations have deaths exceeding Germany's many times over.

So this week we ask, why does Germany have such a low number of deaths from COVID-19?

Part 1, test, test, test. test.

If somebody would have told me one year ago that we have a situation like this,

I think they would go to the luni bin.

Our first expert witness is Matias Aught. He's the director of

the Institute for Laboratory Medicine in one of Stuttgart's main hospitals.

I wouldn't call it a nightmare, but it's like a dream. Matais-Ought is in charge of setting up testing at his hospital.

It was in the middle of February.

And then everybody noticed that the skiers returning from Northern Italy and Austria were infected with COVID.

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