A research carried out by the Chinese authorities show that at least half of the 85,000 Covid-19 cases in the country displayed no symptoms. The study underlines the importance of random testing at a mass scale to identify the “silent carriers” of the disease, completely unaware that they were Covid-19 patients. The data reveals that around 43,000 people in China tested positive despite showing no symptoms.
In a report, the South China Morning Post said that around 43,000 people in China had tested positive for coronavirus by the end of February but had no symptoms.
These asymptomatic, silent carriers were placed under quarantine and were closely monitored by the doctors. However, they were not included in the list of officially confirmed cases which then stood at 80,000.
Scientists are not yet sure what role exactly a silent carrier or asymptomatic transmission plays in the spread of this new type of coronavirus. A patient usually develops symptoms in five days though the incubation period can stretch up to 14 days or even three weeks.
During this period, the asymptomatic patient can pass on the infection to others. A section of scientists are of the view that silent carriers play a vital role in infecting others with the Covid-19 virus.
These findings hold a great deal of importance for India which has been able to test only a fraction of its massive population.
India has been maintaining that cases of community transmission has not been witnessed so far and strict adhering to social distance for a certain period will help it win the war against the Covid-19.
The data available from the Chinese Government notes that asymptomatic carriers of the dreaded virus have been ignored by most of the western countries.
“The Chinese Government changed its classification guidelines on February 7, counting only those patients with symptoms as confirmed cases. The US, Britain and Italy simply do not test people without symptoms, apart from medical workers who have prolonged exposure to the virus,” said the English daily.
China may not have been adding silent carriers on its official list, but it prevented the spread of the disease by isolating and monitoring them.
The approach helped the Government in swiftly containing the virus from spreading to other regions in the China.
In India, experts have been questioning the Government if cases have been underestimated as many people who did not show symptoms but had a travel history could be a silent carriers, if Chinese data is to be believed.
As the world now is witness to a dangerous spread of the virus, some scientists are asking whether asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmissions have been underestimated.
An in-depth research by experts in China, the US, Britain and Hong Kong estimated that undocumented cases of the disease, mostly with mild or even no symptoms, were the source of infection for 79 per cent of documented ones before Wuhan was locked down on January 23, the English daily said.