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Coronavirus pandemic
WorldUnited States & Canada

35 per cent of people infected with Covid-19 show no symptoms, according to US ‘best estimate’

  • The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said that these people can still spread the virus to others

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A homeless woman sits on the sidewalk by a row of tents as she checks her cellphone in downtown Los Angeles. Photo: AFP
Tribune News Service

About a third of people infected with coronavirus in the US are asymptomatic, according to newly released guidance from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response have developed five different planning scenarios to help public health officials making coronavirus decisions based on mathematical modelling.

To determine each scenario, the CDC looks at “measures of viral transmissibility, disease severity and pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic disease transmission.”

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An “asymptomatic case” means that an individual infected with the virus “does not exhibit symptoms during the course of infection.”

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According to the most updated information, and under CDC’s “best estimate about viral transmission and disease severity in the United States,” the agency believes that 35 per cent of people infected by the coronavirus show no symptoms – but are nonetheless capable of spreading the virus.

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The agency also estimates that – under that same scenario – about 0.4 per cent of people who contract the virus will die from it.

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