Symptom-free Covid-19 patients must be reported within two hours, China says
- New guidelines aim to limit risk posed by healthy carriers to virus containment
- Some cases may be pre-symptomatic and will go on to show symptoms later
Symptom-free Covid-19 patients are contagious and must be reported within two hours of confirmed diagnosis, the Chinese government has said.
The move came as official Covid-19 numbers have shown a daily increase in the number of asymptomatic patients from within China and from overseas.
On Wednesday, another 56 asymptomatic patients were found in the country, with 28 being imported cases, bringing the total asymptomatic cases under medical surveillance in the country to 1,104. The 56 patients without symptoms reported is not far short of the 63 new infections with symptoms on the same day.
“Asymptomatic patients are infectious, and have risk of infecting others,” the guidelines said, adding that some of the cases were pre-symptomatic, meaning they would show symptoms later in the course of the infection.
“[We should] strengthen the scope of testing and surveillance for asymptomatic patients …[and] standardise the reporting system of asymptomatic patients.”