India’s Main Concern!

In India, around 69% coronavirus patients who were tested did not show any symptoms of the infection, ICMR (the Indian Council of Medical Research) said.

Till now, India has tested over 4 lakh samples, and out of these, 19,984 people were +ve. Worldwide data showed that 80% of total COVID-19 cases had no or mild COVID-19 symptoms, the health ministry said.

Growing evidence of "silent spreaders" who are unknowingly infecting others has sparked concerns. “Among the total coronavirus tests conducted so far in India, 69% were asymptomatic and 31% were symptomatic. Which means for one +ve patient when we initiated contact tracing, on average we found 2 asymptomatic patients," ICMR’s head Raman Gangakhedkar said.

Around 65% of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra did not show any symptoms, according to an analysis. In UP 75% of the COVID-19 cases were of people with no symptoms.

The health ministry said that they were using community surveillance and contact tracing approach to tackle asymptomatic cases.

If there is an asymptomatic case in a field with high risk and direct contact, then that sample is also being collected for testing, said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, health ministry.

Citing the observation of WHO, Agarwal said, "There are few reports of laboratory-confirmed cases who are truly asymptomatic, and to date, there has been no documented asymptomatic transmission. This does not exclude the possibility that it may occur."