with Germany having to handle a much more difficult situation
...than South Africa????? Are you on something?
You can wiggle all you want but the fact is that the EU is where the covid virus felt most at home and loved killing left and right while ignoring your money and the most advanced everything.
BTW, what that table doesn't show is how much it cost the Western "democracies" to get the results that are worse than the crappiest places on earth. It would probably make your head spin if you could see how many millions per person per month added to the statistical life span - if any - that bill has been so far and, with all that money spent, be beaten by Honduras and Guatemala that did nothing.
with nearly non-existent borders and masses of people moving in and out...
So to keep Brussels bureaucrats and foreigners happy, you kept your borders open and let people die? I got it, internal lockdowns - good. Border lockdowns - bad.