A new model from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that those who are infected but show no signs of COVID-19 account for more than half of all cases of coronavirus.
The model, published Thursday at the JAMA Network Open, shows that an estimated 59 percent of all coronavirus cases come from those who are asymptomatic, including 35 percent who are presymptomatic, meaning they initially show no symptoms but eventually developed – and 24 percent who never develop any signs of COVID-19 symptoms.
“The findings of this study suggest that the identification and isolation of individuals with symptomatic COVID-19 alone will not control the persistent spread of SARS-CoV-2,” the researchers wrote when describing their findings.
The model supports the preventative measures that experts have been recommending for months, such as covering a face and practicing social distance.
“The bottom line is that controlling the COVID-19 pandemic should really control the silent pandemic of transmitting asymptomatic individuals,” said Jay C. Butler, CDC deputy director of infectious diseases and co-author of the study. , told the Washington. Post. “The community mitigation tools we have should be widely used to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 from all infected people, at least until we have the vaccines available.”
To effectively control the spread of the virus, the risk of transmission from asymptomatic people should be reduced and people with COVID-19 symptoms identified and isolated, the study authors wrote.
The findings “suggest that measures such as wearing masks, hand hygiene, social distance and strategic testing of non-sick people will lay the groundwork to delay the spread of COVID-19 until safe and effective vaccines are available and widespread. be used, ”the authors said. wrote.