Asymptomatic corona patients are people who are positive but are not showing the symptoms. People with high immunity might not get symptoms at all and might be unaware until they have an antibody test. On Monday, the officials of the World Health Organization stated that there are concerns pointed out by researches on this note. The disease can be difficult to contain when the symptoms aren’t showing at all. Young people or healthy individuals might never develop COVID-19 symptoms or have mild signs. Others might not show any symptoms until days from infection.
Preliminary evidence outbreaks that happened at the earliest showed that the virus can spread from one person to another when in contact. This is possible even if the carrier doesn’t show symptoms. However, WHO confirmed that asymptomatic spread might happen but it isn’t the main way the virus is transmitted.
Asymptomatic coronavirus spread
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the head of emerging diseases and zoonosis unit at WHO spoke about coronavirus transmission during the news briefing at the Geneva headquarters. She said that there are rare chances of people who don’t have symptoms spread the virus.
Van Kerkhove said people need to detect and isolate infected people who have symptoms and track people with whom they were in contact. She acknowledged studies that indicate presymptomatic or asymptomatic corona cases in nursing homes and household settings. However, she also said that more research and data are needed for the true answers and if coronavirus can spread widely through the asymptomatic people as well.
There are numerous reports from countries that are doing detailed contact tracing. These countries are also following the asymptomatic cases she said. The contacts of infected people are being followed and the possibility of secondary transmission is rare from asymptomatic coronavirus patients.
If asymptomatic virus spread reflects not to be the main driver of transmission, the police implications need to be tremendous. A report from CDC published on April 1, the potential for presymptomatic transmission is the main reason behind social distancing.
Contracting CDC reports
According to the CDC, a person with symptoms and controlling contact with others is not enough, because people without symptoms can also transmit the disease. Both asymptomatic and presymptomatic spread of coronavirus seems to be happening. However, the cases are rare compared to people who have clear symptoms. The findings show an important aspect of how to screen for the virus and limit spread.
Maria added that they’re currently focusing on symptomatic cases. She said that if healthcare workers are being able to detect and isolate such patients and find the people they came in contact with, the chances of the outbreak can reduce drastically.
