In the crucial phase of the contact restrictions in spring, a team led by the Bonn virologist Hendrik Streeck presented preliminary results from a study it had carried out in the Gangelt community.

In the town in the Heinsberg district, the first major outbreak in Germany occurred in mid-February after a carnival event.

The study served North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) as an argument for planning openings.

But there is a significant problem: The calculated infection mortality clearly underestimates the mortality in Gangelt.