Can people without symptoms also spread Covid-19?

Team Udayavani, Mar 27, 2020, 1:32 PM IST

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, people are conducting various    studies regarding the spread, now studies are starting to reveal just how infectious it is and when a person with covid-19 is most likely to spread the virus. It is said that, half of everyone testing positive for the coronavirus will show absolutely no symptoms.

People with no symptoms could also be infected and spread it. These patients are called asymptomatic carriers of coronavirus, which means that they do not have symptoms of infection but can test positive and spread it. They are usually young people who have good immune systems and are somehow able to fight the virus.

It is practically not possible to identify people who are not showing symptoms and are yet testing positive. One cannot test each and every person or it will only create more panic. Also, one cannot know if you are sitting next to an asymptomatic person. Hence, the best precaution is social distancing or self-isolation.

Another aspect is that no test is 100 percent accurate. Some test results may incorrectly say that a person has a condition, but they don’t, and other tests may incorrectly say someone doesn’t have a condition, but they do.

In this case, the test was rapidly created and deployed, due to which its accuracy is often not fully known. The test was developed under controlled lab conditions, but it is used on samples taken, transported by people in the real world, all of which increase the likelihood of errors.