Coronavirus patients without symptoms aren’t driving the spread of the virus, World Health Organization officials said Monday.
Asymptomatic patients are those people who do not show symptoms of the novel coronavirus or only develop mild symptoms.
Others might not develop symptoms until days after they were actually infected.
According to CNBC media, WHO officials have claimed that asymptomatic spread is not the main way the virus is being transmitted.
"From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual," Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO's emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said at a news briefing from the United Nations agency's Geneva headquarters.
"It's very rare."
In Kenya almost half of the infections recorded are asymptomatic. Kenya has currently recorded over 2,800 infections.
Last week, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said many cases in the country remain are asymptomatic and can be managed from home.
This means many people in isolation may be released provided they follow WHO protocols.
A Ministry of Health situation report dated April 16, 2020, noted that a majority of Covid-19 patients had no symptoms when they tested positive.
The report showed that 59 per cent of the 225 cases announced by then were asymptomatic.
The trend has been similar since then with asymptomatic patients making the larger portion of the positive cases.
Preliminary evidence from the earliest outbreaks indicated that the virus could spread from person-to-person contact, even if the carrier didn't have symptoms.
