(Image source from: medscape.com)

The officials from the World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported that they still believe that the spread of the virus from the asymptomatic patients is rare. This statement comes despite the warnings that have been issued by some of the experts worldwide about the transmission of the virus.

While the experts have been consistently blaming the asymptomatic patients as the main reason behind the spread of the virus, WHO says it is not necessarily the case.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on COVID-19 addressed this concern in one of the press briefings. She said that several countries have reported transmission of the virus from the asymptomatic patients. But, when the situation has been looked further in-depth into, it has been found that these patients have mild or unusual symptoms that are not easily transmissible.

Several of the health officials from leading countries of Britain, US and even Europe have warned that the spread of the virus is mainly because of the individuals who are not showcasing any kinds of symptoms.

WHO officials have stated that this type of spread is not enough to cause a pandemic that the world is struggling with now. Many studies that have been conducted on the asymptomatic patients are anecdotal reports that are based on modelling and not extensive ones.

Van Kerkhove have further reported that according to the data from the countries where people with no symptoms have been tracked for a long period, it has been found that the rate of spread is quite slow.

“We are constantly looking at this data and we're trying to get more information from countries to truly answer this question,” said Van Kerkhove.

She further reported that it still seems to be rare that the asymptomatic patients will transmit onward.

By Somapika Dutta