WHO withdraws comment on asymptomatic spread of coronavirus

GENEVA: A top World Health Organisation expert, Maria Van Kerkhove has withdrawn her earlier statements that asymptomatic transmission of the coronavirus is “very rare,” saying it was a “misunderstanding.”

Maria Van Kerkhove, the UN health agency’s technical lead on the COVID-19 pandemic, insisted today that she was referring only to a few studies. Kerkhove said that the estimates of transmission from people without symptoms come primarily from models, which may not provide an accurate representation.

There had been concern from some health experts after Kerkhove said in a press briefing on Monday that transmission of coronavirus by people with no symptoms is “very rare”. Harvard scientists have slammed the WHO for suggesting that asymptomatic patients don’t spread the novel COVID-19.

Live on #COVID19 transmission with @DrMikeRyan & Dr @mvankerkhove. #AskWHO https://t.co/k1eZI2l4ML

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) June 9, 2020

She clarified that she was “just” responding to a question and that it wasn’t a policy statement of the WHO. The top officials of WHO also said that studies show people with the COVID-19 are most infectious just at the point when they first begin to feel unwell.

This feature has made it so hard to control the spread of the disease that causes coronavirus disease; however, it can be done through exact testing and social distancing, the experts added.

Maria Van Kerkhove further said, “It appears from the very limited information we have right now that people have more virus in their body at or around the time that they develop symptoms, so very early on.”

Preliminary studies from the US and  Germany propose that people with mild symptoms can be infectious for up to eight to nine days, and “it can be a lot longer for people who are more severely ill”, she added.

Another health expert of WHO, Dr. Mike Ryan said that the novel COVID-19 lodges in the upper respiratory tract, making it easier to transmit by droplets than related viruses such as Sars or Mers, which are in the lower tract.