Until now it was thought that people who had no symptoms yet could spread the coronavirus. That does not seem to be the case now, concludes the World Health Organization (WHO).
In April, there was a study from Hong Kong that concluded that people could infect others two to three days before they had symptoms. It led to great fear among the population and concern among scientists, because the virus would then be less easily contained.
“Although asymptomatic spread can occur,” WHO now says, “this is not the primary way the virus is transmitted.” Much more data is now available from countries conducting detailed contact research such as Singapore.
“It is rare for a person without symptoms to actually transmit the virus to another person,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the department for emerging diseases and zoonosis, at a news conference in Geneva.
“What we really want to focus on is tracking the symptomatic cases,” said Van Kerkhove. “If we actually track all the symptomatic cases, isolate them, track their contacts and quarantine them, we could drastically reduce the outbreak.”
Sources): HLN –
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