WHO clarifies comments on asymptomatic spread of Covid-19

A day after suggesting that asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 is "very rare," a top WHO official clarified yesterday that scientists haven't yet determined how common this form of spread is. The WHO's original comments led to strong pushback from experts, who suggested that the agency had miscommunicated or erred when suggesting that those without symptoms were unlikely to spread infection. "The majority of transmission that we know about is that people who have symptoms transmit the virus to other people through infectious droplets," Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on the pandemic, clarified. "But there are a subset of people who don’t develop symptoms, and to truly understand how many people don’t have symptoms, we don’t actually have that answer yet." Read more here.

Here's what else is going on with the pandemic:

A new CDC investigation of the Covid-19 outbreak aboard the Navy ship USS Theodore Roosevelt reinforces the need for social distancing and protective measures such as wearing masks, according to the report's authors. About 1,000 service members aboard the ship are thought to have been infected, and a survey of 382 of these individuals found that nearly 1 in 5 showed no symptoms. Those who were symptomatic had mild symptoms such as the loss of taste or smell.
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