More than forty percent of the residents of an Italian town infected with the coronavirus had no symptoms. Scientists report this in a study published Tuesday in the authoritative journal Nature. It would indicate that carriers without symptoms play a major role in the spread of the coronavirus, experts now say.
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The study was conducted in the Italian town of Vo, where Italy’s first corona death occurred in February. Almost immediately afterwards, the town went into lockdown, with about 85 percent of the inhabitants being tested. Afterwards, experts continued to do research on the population and followed the evolution in the town.
The tests showed that 2.3 percent of the population was infected. Of the infected residents, 42.5 percent showed no symptoms.
“The research highlights the importance of mass testing and isolating infected individuals,” scientists say.
The infected inhabitants who showed no symptoms had the same amount of viruses in their body as the corona patients with symptoms. And so they were equally contagious.
“A symptomatic carrier is unaware of the infection and, depending on his or her lifestyle and occupation, may meet many people and pass on the virus,” said Enrico Lavezzo, one of the researchers.
The scientists also found that children under 10 years of age did not become infected, despite some of them living with infected adults and thus coming into close contact with people who were infected and able to transmit the virus.
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