COVID-19: 80% of cases are asymptomatic, says Ministry of Health

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday stated that about 80% of the COVID-19 cases were either asymptomatic or showed mild symptoms.

The Ministry of Health also emphasised that people need to follow the lockdown restriction and even maintain social distancing within the family to avoid the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus infection. The Ministry of Health also responded stated that the asymptomatic patients are the ‘silent carriers.’

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) stated that it is not quite possible to test all the asymptomatic silent carriers and advised the people to stay inside their homes and maintain social distancing. ICMR also said that the current testing strategy for asymptomatic patients mainly involves identifying them through contact with other patients or travel history. ICMR also pointed out that even mild flu-like symptoms are at high risk for the infection. The testing protocol also includes screening patients with severe acute respiratory illness.

Luv Agarwal, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said, “On the basis of worldwide analysis, 80% of coronavirus patients are asymptomatic or show mild symptoms. Around 15% turn into severe cases, and 5% turn into critical cases.”

The Ministry of Health also pointed out that the possibility of not needing medical attention for undetected patients who are either asymptomatic or show mild symptoms is slim. Dr. R RGangakhedar, the head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at ICMR, highlighted the limitations of testing and said, “RT-PCR test usually comes positive when a person is symptomatic. A person takes time to be symptomatic, and when asymptomatic people are tested, chances of the test coming positive will remain low as compared to when he is closer to infection. This is the limitation of tests.”

Dr.Gangakhedar said the government is worried about asymptomatic cases as it is a challenge to stop the virus spread through them. “We are equally worried about asymptomatic persons who are around and maybe spreading the infection, but we must understand that science has not progressed that far where you can detect such asymptomatic cases cost-effectively through simpler tests,” he added.

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