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News > United Kingdom

UK: Over 80% of COVID-19 Testing Study Had No Typical Symptoms

  • Members of the staff at a COVID19 testing centre in Central London, Britain, U.K. October 7, 2020.

    Members of the staff at a COVID19 testing centre in Central London, Britain, U.K. October 7, 2020. | Photo: EFE

Published 8 October 2020
Opinion

The high number of asymptomatic subjects raises concerns or a silent transmission between people who do not suffer the disease's typical discomforts.  

According to experts, over 80 percent of COVID positive subjects in a study led by the UK’s University College of London (UCL) did not show any of the core symptoms of the disease while being tested. 

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According to UCL research in June, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) selected the subjects for a national COVID-19 survey in April and June. 86.1% of those infected did not have fever, cough, or a loss of taste or smell, the disease's main symptoms.

The ONS regularly tests tens of thousands of families, whether they show symptoms or not. The high number of asymptomatic subjects raises concerns or a silent transmission between people who do not suffer the typical discomforts of the disease.  

“At the moment, the focus is on people who have symptoms, but if you are not catching all those who are asymptomatic or presymptomatic, it may be really difficult to get outbreaks down in time before they get out of control,” said epidemiology professor and author of the study Irene Petersen.


From April to June, experts evaluated the symptoms’ description of over 36,000 tested people. Only 115 tests were positive, out of which 27 people had symptoms or 23.5%. 

The scientists warned that infected people with no symptoms or different signs of the disease in high-risk environments, such as universities, crowded factories, offices, and not naturally ventilated workplaces, could spread the virus.

“Anybody who’s had students coming home at Christmas knows they often bring some sort of bug with them, and this Christmas, in particular, they could bring COVID home and potentially seed new outbreaks,” Petersen added.

As of Thursday, the United kingdom reported 561,815 COVID-19 cases and 42,592 deaths due to the virus. 

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