A new study from China suggests asymptomatic people spread COVID-19 the most.

“Stealth transmission refers to the fact that people who have mild, non-discrete symptoms or are asymptomatic are contributing greatly to the spread of the virus…The new study suggests that two-thirds of the cases may be transmitted in this way, according to their mathematical modeling,”

“On Day One, which could be really mild to you, you are producing a lot of active virus which gets transmitted by the respiratory droplets, and either directly acquired by susceptible individuals or picked up from surfaces,” “In other words: If you haven’t yet, start acting like you already have COVID-19.”

  • Kirsten Hokeness, professor and chair of the Department of Science and Technology at Bryant University and an expert in immunology, virology, microbiology, and human health and disease.

Hokeness said the incubation period for the virus, or the length of time between contracting it and the onset of symptoms, is about five days on average. She pointed to a new study out of Germany, which found that individuals can spread the virus very soon after they’ve been infected ― and long before they may even show symptoms. The virus can also potentially spread for a prolonged period of time after the initial infection. In that study, researchers were able to cultivate live virus between Day One and Day Five after the onset of symptoms. This was when the virus was most infectious, Hokeness said. It remained infectious, but less so, up until the eighth day of symptoms.

“Many cases are mild enough that you may never realize you are infected” “A mild case would be something like low-grade fever, which you might not know you have,”  “It might be a runny nose, and, amidst allergy season, you might not see it as important.”

  • Nasia Safdar, medical director of Infection Control and Prevention at the University of Wisconsin Health in Madison, Wisconsin.

Jagdish Khubchandani, an associate chair and professor of health science at Ball State University said the stealth transmission study suggests there may be five or 10 undetected cases for each one we know about. “I think it could be more, but certainly not less…Everyone should be suspected of infection” Article Link: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/act-like-you-have-coronavirus_l_5e721aafc5b6eab7793fc120

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