Germany could afford a quicker lockdown exit than some other European nations not just because of strong health facilities, but also because of some local cultural habits, two Belgian researchers have suggested. “Contact matrices"—diagrams showing how often people meet—drawn up by the authors showed that Germans do not meet each other as often as Italians and Belgians.
This could give the country an advantage during the covid-19 lockdowns, the University of Namur researchers claimed. The matrices, based on social contact surveys, were the densest for Italy, one of the worst-affected countries in Europe.
Italians are a more family-centred society and visit relatives frequently. This means Italy may need stricter physical distancing and