Among Covid-19’s most destructive features, the incubation period is the worst: longer than most viral infections. The longer a virus takes to replicate inside someone before causing symptoms, the harder it can be to control. This is because of the greater potential for the infected to unknowingly spread it far and wide.
The good news is the interval between exposure and the development of symptoms appears to be narrowing.
Experiments and research done by scientists from Peking University and Tsinghua University in Beijing analyzed data from more than 140 studies to estimate the incubation period of Covid caused by the different strains of SARS-CoV-2. The results showed that the average fell from 5 days with alpha variant, to 3.42 days with omicron according to the study published Monday.
“The findings of this study suggest that SARS-CoV-2 has evolved and mutated continuously throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, producing variants with different enhanced transmission and virulence,” Wannian Liang and colleagues said. “Identifying the incubation period of different variants is a key factor in determining the isolation period.”
The study’s results are particularly important for places such as China which has maintained a Covid Zero policy to eliminate any signs of the virus as quickly as possible. Everyone who is infected and all foreign travelers are expected to isolate throughout the potential incubation period to prevent transmission to others.
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