SINGAPORE — Asymptomatic persons with the coronavirus disease are more common than was previously thought – some research says potentially as many as 55 percent to 70 percent of infections –
It is one of three reasons that make COVID-19 such a challenging disease to tackle, National Center for Infectious Diseases executive director Leo Yee Sin told The Straits Times Monday.
She called on people to protect themselves, those around them and the community by being socially responsible. Dr. Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious diseases expert who practices at Rophi Clinic at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, said that studies done in the United States, China, and Italy show that more than half to about 70 percent of those with COVID-19 are either asymptomatic or have minimal symptoms, but they can shed the virus for up to four weeks.
Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, program leader of the infectious diseases program at the National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, said people who do not show symptoms throughout their infection would escape detection. On April 1, China began publishing daily figures on the number of new asymptomatic coronavirus cases. Its National Health Commission reported that about 78 percent, or 130, of 166 new infections identified in the 24 hours to the afternoon of April 1 were asymptomatic.
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