When the Federal Statistical Office reported in January, that the average number of sick days taken by workers in Germany was 15.1 in 2023, many businesses suggested that this was because people were skiving off work.

Germany is now the "world champion when it comes to sick days," said Oliver Bäte, CEO of the Allianz insurance group.

Doctors, however, had a different take. "What I'm seeing in my practice these days is exactly what recent reports from health insurance companies have shown: More people are coming into my practice with acute infections," Markus Beier, the federal chairman of Germany association of general practitioners, told DW. "To some extent, this is still the belated effect of the pandemic."

Klaus Reinhardt, president of the German Medical Association, also sees increased infections as the main reason for the record number of sick people. "Playing sick does not happen on a large scale," he said. Since the coronavirus pandemic, more people in general have been taking sick leave because of infectious diseases. During the two or three years of lockdown and infection prevention, preventing infection has taken on a different........

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