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A mass screening programme of greater than 10 million Wuhan residents recognized 300 asymptomatic cases, however none had been infectious. The outcomes are printed in the journal Nature Communications.
The mass testing undertaking came about over two weeks on the finish of May — after town’s stringent lockdown was lifted in April. The examine discovered no ‘viable’ virus in the asymptomatic cases, and the shut contacts of those optimistic asymptomatic cases didn’t take a look at optimistic. The researchers, nevertheless, cautioned that their findings don’t present that the virus can’t be transmitted by asymptomatic carriers. What this implies, as a substitute, is that strict non-pharmaceutical interventions corresponding to mask-wearing, hand washing, social distancing and lockdown have helped cut back the virulence of Covid-19.
The examine was led by researchers on the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) in Wuhan, China, in collaboration with researchers on the Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, UK.
Wuhan was essentially the most severely affected metropolis in China. After stringent interventions and lockdown measures from January 23, town’s lockdown was lifted on April 8. The mass screening was carried out between May 14 and June 1, to evaluate the post-lockdown danger of Covid-19.
The 300 asymptomatic cases had been discovered amongst individuals aged between 10 and 89. The asymptomatic optimistic fee was the bottom in kids and youths aged underneath 17, and the very best amongst individuals aged over 60. Further swab testing of 1,174 shut contacts of those 300 asymptomatic optimistic cases had been all damaging.
What the findings confirmed, in impact, was that the an infection prevalence was very low 5-Eight weeks after the top of lockdown. The researchers mentioned this confirms that transmission of Covid-19 might be efficiently managed by nicely carried out interventions, together with masks carrying, hand hygiene, social distancing, contract tracing, and lockdown restrictions.
But whereas the cases recognized in Wuhan had been asymptomatic, there may be loads of proof elsewhere exhibiting that folks contaminated with Covid-19 could also be quickly asymptomatic and infectious earlier than occurring to develop signs. Also, the asymptomatic cases in Wuhan had been recognized after a really stringent lockdown — by then, the epidemic had been already introduced underneath management.
Again, antibody testing confirmed that just about two-thirds of the asymptomatic cases had beforehand had Covid-19. Because the danger of individuals being contaminated was drastically lowered, when persons are uncovered to a low dose of virus, they could are usually asymptomatic because of their very own immunity. Therefore, the researchers confused, it might be problematic to use the outcomes of this analysis to international locations the place Covid-19 outbreaks haven’t been efficiently introduced underneath management.
Source: University of East Anglia
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