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Merkel quickly imposed stringent two-person limits on gatherings, along with social distancing requirements and lockdowns. She explained that the government’s priorities were testing and the tracing of “every infection chain,” to contain the spread.

In the beginning, Germany was hit just as hard as other European countries, but its health-care system has fared much better. It was, and is, self-sufficient in terms of medical devices, test kits and equipment production, and had a surplus of ICU beds and other specialized health-care services at the ready.

Its institutions and politicians were temperate. There was no competition for supplies and — due to Merkel’s science-based policymaking — the country ramped-up testing faster than and to a greater scale than most. Now about 120,000 tests are administered daily among a population of 83 million, and the goal is to do even more.

Results have been rapid and flawless, thanks to a network of laboratories that, among other innovations, developed the first test in the world for this coronavirus.

Now Germany is so far advanced in controlling the virus that it is cautiously rolling out a system of issuing so-called “immunity cards” for those who have been shown to have developed antibodies to the disease, which will allow them to work, travel and socialize, thus allowing the country to gradually reopen its economy. Such a system will be the key to finding a safe and sustainable way to kickstart economic activity in Canada and elsewhere.