GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — A top World Health Organization (WHO) official on Tuesday clarified her remarks that transmission of the new coronavirus from asymptomatic carriers was “very rare”, citing a “misunderstanding”.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's COVID-19 technical lead, had said that on the basis of studies carried out in several countries, transmission of the virus by an asymptomatic person seemed “very rare”.
They're following asymptomatic cases, they're following contacts and they're not finding secondary transmission onward.
“Comprehensive studies on transmission from asymptomatic individuals are difficult to conduct, but the available evidence from contact tracing reported by member states suggests that asymptomatically-infected individuals are much less likely to transmit the virus than those who develop symptoms,” it said.
“I used the phrase 'very rare', and I think that is a misunderstanding to state that asymptomatic transmission globally is very rare.
