Silent coronavirus carriers ‘unlikely to set off another wave of infections’

Chinese health official says research indicates that patients without symptoms appear to have low viral transmission rates but more investigation needed

Study of about 1,500 close contacts of asymptomatic cases finds only seven infected

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Asymptomatic coronavirus patients appear to have low transmission rates, according to a senior Chinese health official. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:04pm, 2 Apr 2020Updated: 11:27pm, 3 Apr 2020

Asymptomatic patients are unlikely to trigger another major outbreak of a pandemic coronavirus given their low transmission rates, according to a Chinese epidemiologist.

In Beijing on Thursday, Wu Zunyou, from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said research indicated that while one confirmed coronavirus patient could infect three people, an asymptomatic patient passed the virus on to “less than one person”.

Wu’s assessment was based on work by researchers at the disease control centre in Ningbo, in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, who found that only 4.4 per cent of confirmed cases were caused by asymptomatic carriers.

As well trying to rein in imported cases of the virus, China is shifting attention to tackling “silent” carriers. By Wednesday, China had 1,075 asymptomatic patients still under medical observation, with 55 new asymptomatic cases.

Wu said that in a separate study disease control officials in “a southern Chinese province” tracked more than 1,500 close contacts of asymptomatic patients, and found that only seven were infected.

But further investigation also showed the seven also had contact with other symptomatic coronavirus patients.

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