Coronavirus: more asymptomatic carriers reported in China, but experts disagree on the threat they pose

Although people who don’t show symptoms are ‘very infective’, there’s probably not very many of them, respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan says

But head of specialist Covid-19 team in Shanghai says asymptomatic carriers ‘now pose the biggest risk’ in terms of preventing imported cases

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Asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus could be anywhere, but what risk they pose is a moot point. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 7:30am, 30 Mar 2020Updated: 1:31pm, 30 Mar 2020

A Chinese doctor who spent time in Wuhan in January has tested positive for Covid-19 weeks after returning home to Henan province and despite spending 14 days in self-isolation, health authorities said on Sunday, raising concerns about the threat of asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus.

Two of the doctor’s colleagues in Henan, neither of whom had worked in Wuhan, also tested positive, officials said.

The news sparked alarm on social media.

“No symptoms is so horrible,” a person said on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform. “It’s impossible to prevent it effectively. I hope the government can make the number of asymptomatic cases public.”

As of Sunday, there had been more than 670,000 confirmed cases around the world and close to 32,000 deaths.

In China, which was the initial focus of the pandemic, the number of local infections has slowed almost to a halt, but the country continues to battle the threat of imported cases.