Geneva:The World Health Organization clarified its comments that transmission of the coronavirus by people who never developed symptoms is “very rare.” WHO’s Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said during a live Q&A that asymptomatic spread is a “really complex question” and much is still unknown.
An asymptomatic person is someone with Covid-19 who doesn’t have symptoms and never develops symptoms. It’s not the same as someone who later develops symptoms, who would be classified as pre-symptomatic.
Some studies suggest as much as 40% of transmission may be due to asymptomatic individuals, Kerkhove said, clarifying her comments. However, the majority of transmission is likely from people who have symptoms and are spreading it through infectious droplets, she said.
“To truly understand how many people don’t have symptoms, we don’t actually have that answer yet,” she added.
“Some estimates of around 40% of transmission may be due to asymptomatic, but those are from models, so I didn’t include that in my answer yesterday, but wanted to make sure that I covered that here,” she said.
