Latest
Latest
1h agoJeffrey Donaldson resigns as DUP leader after historical sex offences charge
Latest
2h agoInside the camp full of Isis recruits now too scared to return home
Latest
2h agoMan, 61, charged with non-recent sex offences in Northern Ireland

Coronavirus latest: Most people don’t have any symptoms, study finds

'They may be silent transmitters and they don't know about it', said Professor Irene Petersen

Most people who test positive for coronavirus do not have a cough, fever or loss of taste, research has found.

77 per cent of people who had a positive test had no symptoms on the day of their test, while 86 per cent did not have any of the most recognised symptoms.

Researchers led by Professor Irene Petersen at University College London (UCL) analysed data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) coronavirus infection survey, which has been testing thousands of households every week – regardless of whether people have symptoms.

The analysis – which looked at data for 36,061 people who had a test between the end of April and the end of June – found 115 (0.32 per cent) had a positive test result, of which 27 (23.5 per cent) were symptomatic and 88 (76.5 per cent) were asymptomatic on the day of the test.

Asymptomatic spreaders

Prof Petersen said people may have had symptoms in the days before their test or developed them later, but the figures suggested large numbers may be spreading the virus while asymptomatic.

She explained: “They may be silent transmitters and they don’t know about it. And so I think that’s a problem. You may have a lot of people who are out in the society and they’re not self-isolating because they didn’t know that they are positive.”

A sign in a window at The Forge student accommodation at Sheffield Hallam University which has seen a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases among its students. PA Photo. Picture date: Tuesday October 6, 2020. Photo credit should read: Danny Lawson/PA Wire
A sign in a window at The Forge student accommodation at Sheffield Hallam University (Photo: PA)

She said university students are one group who should be tested regularly, including before theyreturn home for Christmas.

“I think you could seed a lot of new infections around Christmas – you’re indoors, you sit around the table,” she said. “Hopefully they can get that (testing) up and running before Christmas, I don’t think they should wait until Christmas.”

“Covid-19 symptoms are a poor marker of (Covid) infection,” they wrote in the journal Clinical Epidemiology. “In order to capture ‘silent’ transmission and potentially prevent future outbreaks, test programmes should involve frequent and widespread (Covid-19) testing of all individuals, not just symptomatic cases, at least in high-risk settings or specific locations.”

Prof Petersen added: “Future testing programmes should involve frequent testing of a wider group of individuals, not just symptomatic cases, especially in high-risk settings or places where many people work or live close together such as meat factories or university halls.”

Change in status

Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, who leads the Covid Symptom Study (CSS) app, said data from more than four million people who used the app and reported symptoms over a week found that 85 per cent of adults reported fever, cough or loss of taste/smell.

Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the UCL study could not determine the proportion of people with Covid who become symptomatic or remain asymptomatic at some stage during their infection, due to the fact it looked at a fixed time point.

He said: “Anyone who was previously symptomatic and had now recovered or who were currently incubating the infection and would develop symptoms within the following hours would not be included as being symptomatic in this study.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Since the beginning of this pandemic we have prioritised testing for health and care workers to ensure all NHS staff have consistent access to testing.

“NHS staff with symptoms can access testing as a priority and staff in outbreak areas can access tests if they are asymptomatic. We will continue to expand testing availability as our capacity expands to 500,000 tests a day by the end of October.”

Most Read By Subscribers