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Speaking to the German media outlet, Frankfurter Allgemeine, virologist Hendrik Streeck has admitted that more people are expected to die in 2020 than other recent years due to the coronavirus crisis. The scientist said that patients have such a bad sense of smell when they get the virus that they can’t even smell their babies’ dirty nappy. This comes as Germany’s public health agency has warned that the crisis could last up to two years.

In Germany, there have been 7,000 confirmed cases and 14 deaths. Mr Streeck said: “Almost all infected people we interviewed, and this applies to a good two thirds, described a loss of smell and taste lasting several days. “It goes so far that a mother could not smell the full diaper of her child. “Others could no longer smell their shampoo, and food began to taste bland.

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“We cannot yet tell exactly when these symptoms will appear, but we believe a little later in the infection.” The scientist has also said that diarrhoea could be more common than originally thought. He said: “Diarrhoea also occurred in our infected people in 30 percent of the cases, which is more common than previously thought.” With regards to the high mortality in Italy compared to Germany, Mr Streeck said: “I’m not surprised at all. Because in Italy only the very difficult symptomatic cases were tested. SEE MORE: School closures: Scared Brits urge UK to follow Germany’s lead

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“The current study from Shenzhen, for example, also found that children get infected by the pathogen as often as adults, but they develop only mild or no symptoms. “If one follows the study and assumes that 91 percent of Covid-19 only experience mild or moderate symptoms, the Italians initially focused only on the remaining nine percent. “In addition, the dead are also subsequently tested on Sars-CoV-2 there. “In China, too, the number of deaths rose sharply at the beginning, but not the number of infections, because they also focused on the dead. “Now it’s the other way around because there is a lot more testing in China. DON'T MISS: Coronavirus: Merkel to take emergency action to save Germany's economy [REVIEW]

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