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Only about a fifth of people infected with the new coronavirus remain asymptomatic, according to a new large-scale study by researchers at the University of Bern, based on the results of 79 previous studies.
The study was published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE on Tuesday.
If the number of asymptomatic infections were high, so-called mass immunity would be readily available, according to one theory.
This is most likely not the case
Said Nicola Low, an epidemiologist at the University of Bern, lead author of the study for the Swiss news agency SDA.
There is no consensus among experts on the number of asymptomatic infections, since the one that is once considered asymptomatic, the later the symptoms can appear, in which case we speak of presymptomatic, that is, patients before the appearance of symptoms .
Low and his research team evaluated data from 79 previous studies. The papers included data from infected people whose symptoms were studied over a longer period of time between March and June. Of the 6,616 infected, only 1,287 remained asymptomatic during the course of the disease, and about 80 percent had symptoms sooner or later.
When the range of studies analyzed was narrowed to papers in which subjects were randomly selected so that they were not just hospitalized, the proportion of asymptomatic infections rose to 30 percent. The researchers also found that children were less likely to develop the disease than adults.
The analysis of the research, that is, the so-called meta-analysis, confirmed that asymptomatic infections play a relatively small role in the spread of the virus.
The problem is not with them, but with so-called presymptomatic infections, who are not yet aware of their illness, Low noted, adding that complying with general masking and distance rules is important to stopping the pandemic.
Low and his team continue to monitor the studies of the asymptomatic course of Covid-19 caused by the coronavirus, as 900 additional studies, potentially significant, according to the scientist, have been published since the present work was completed.
Meanwhile, a broader range of symptoms has come to light than was known at the start of the epidemic, in addition to coughing and choking, loss of taste and smell perception and pain in the extremities are already considered. . With this knowledge, the number of asymptomatic infections can be more accurately determined in the future.
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