Dr Nick Coatsworth, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, shares tips for health professionals and addresses concerns about asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19.
With new stories emerging about the rapid spread of COVID-19, public health experts are now warning the general public to remain inside whether or not they feel healthy. The reason? you’ll be an asymptomatic carrier.
“Asymptomatic transmission means you’ll be infected with the virus, don’t have any symptoms and still be contagious,”
Most people who pass along the virus do so while they’re sick, actually because they’re coughing or sneezing, which sheds plenty of infectious viruses. But, there’s still a big number of individuals who transmit that are asymptomatic.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control estimates that the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 will be picked up by a traditional test about one to 2 days before symptoms appear.
This means that — for some days a minimum of — people have enough virus in their bodies to be detected by lab tests, but they could not feel sick yet. a number of them will never get sick, which implies they’re totally “asymptomatic,” while others will eventually come down with symptoms, which is named “presymptomatic.“
But our new understanding about asymptomatic transmission has public health experts weighing the merit of asking everyone to wear masks — not just healthcare workers and other people who are already feeling symptoms.
For the nonce, public health experts are asking everyone to assume they may be spreading the virus.
Source: Australian Government Department of Health
