WHO: Covid-19 asymptomatic patients are not driving the spread

Shafaq News / Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist and World health organization expert, said in a press briefing Today, that studies show that the transmission of Covid-19 is the highest in the stage of early symptoms. However, in 40% of the cases, the virus can be transmitted without developing symptoms.

CNBC website published earlier on Tuesday, that the asymptomatic spread of Covid-19 is "very rare".

Some people, particularly young and otherwise healthy individuals, who are infected by the coronavirus never develop symptoms or only develop mild symptoms. Others might not develop symptoms until days after they were actually infected.

Preliminary evidence from the earliest outbreaks indicated that the virus could spread from person-to-person contact, even if the carrier didn’t have symptoms. But WHO officials now say that while asymptomatic spread can occur, it is not the main way it’s being transmitted. 

“From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said at a news briefing from the United Nations agency’s Geneva headquarters. “It’s very rare.”

Van Kerkhove said that the government responses should focus on detecting and isolating infected people with symptoms, and tracking anyone who might have come into contact with them. However, further studies are required to "truly answer" the question whether asymptomatic patients can transmit the virus or not