- Researchers say 25 percent to 50 percent of people with COVID-19 are unaware they have the virus.
- This allows the novel coronavirus to spread more rapidly throughout a community.
- Experts say these carriers without symptoms make it even more important for people to wear face masks in public.
There may be a lot of people walking around who have COVID-19 but have no idea they are spreading the virus.
The first word of this possibility came in early April from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director, Dr. Robert Redfield, in an interview with National Public Radio affiliate WABE.
“One of the [pieces of] information that we have confirmed now is that a significant number of individuals that are infected actually remain asymptomatic. That may be as many as 25 percent,” Redfield said.
Then a few days later, researchers in Iceland reported that 50 percent of their novel coronavirus cases who tested positive had no symptoms. The testing had been conducted by deCODE, a subsidiary of the U.S. Biotech company Amgen.
