Daily US Times: An extensive study suggests Covid-19 patients are most likely to pass on coronavirus within the first five days of having symptoms.
The research indicates Covid-19 patients had the highest levels of the virus early on in their illness and “live” virus, capable of replicating, was found up to nine days after symptoms began.
The UK scientists say their study emphasises early isolation is critical to stopping the spread of the virus.
The study appears in the Lancet Microbe.
How infectious individuals are depends on many factors, including the amount of virus they have in their bodies and how much viable virus (essentially, virus that is able to replicate) they are carrying.
Some reports have suggested that people are most infectious just before they have symptoms and in the first week of having coronavirus.
Scientists examined 79 global studies on coronavirus, involving symptomatic people in hospitals who had already tested positive for coronavirus.
Researchers were able to identify and replicate viable coronavirus from throat samples taken up to 9 days after infections started.
And they found the amount of viral RNA particles in people’s throat samples peaked at the time symptoms began or within five days.
Meanwhile, inactive viral RNA fragments were still found in throat and nose samples on average up to 17 days after symptoms started.
The scientists conclude that despite these fragments persisting, as no viable replicating virus was found beyond nine days it was unlikely that the majority of people were still very infectious beyond this point.
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