The coronavirus pandemic is still going on but perhaps, it might not be as contagious as initially expected. The past two months have been filled with reminders to wash your hands for 30 seconds and wearing facemasks in public, even those who aren’t showing any symptoms. Asymptomatic patients were truly among the most concerning group among those who tested positive.
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Per CNBC, the World Health Organization have found those infected with coronavirus but don’t show any symptoms aren’t the ones spreading the disease at a rapid pace. This clashes with studies from other researchers who thought the disease would be hard to contain because of asymptomatic patients. Though it’s not impossible that those without symptoms could transmit COVID-19, certain people, specifically young, healthy individuals, show little to no symptoms.
“From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual,” the head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said. Though she said this isn’t conclusive, it does look promising.
“We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing,” she said. “They’re following asymptomatic cases. They’re following contacts. And they’re not finding secondary transmission onward. It’s very rare.”
The CDC previously established that asymptomatic patients were one of the biggest reasons for social distancing measures. That might change things moving forward but for the time being, Van Kerkhove said that they’re still monitoring the transmission among asymptomatic and presymptomatic people.
