How long is the coronavirus incubation period?
The incubation period for a new virus is normally between two and 14 days. The World Health Organisation WHO, the German Robert Koch Institute and the Federal Ministry of Health assume that's how long it
How long is the coronavirus incubation period?
The incubation period for a new virus is normally between two and 14 days. The World Health Organisation WHO, the German Robert Koch Institute and the Federal Ministry of Health assume that's how long it takes between infection and the onset of symptoms for the coronavirus as well. Accordingly, suspected cases continue to be isolated for two weeks.
Zhong Nan Shan, head of China's national expert panel for the control of lung disease and a leading epidemiologist, also found that the first symptoms usually appear after three days. His team had examined 1,099 cases from 552 hospitals in China.
However, these preliminary results require further investigation, said Zhong Nan Shan, who discovered the SARS coronavirus in 2003. In rare cases, the incubation period for the new coronavirus could be up to 24 days, according to a study published on the medical research platform medRxiv earlier this month. The report put the median incubation period at three days with a range of zero to 24 days.
Individual cases or faulty control?
A few days ago, a report by the provincial government of Hubei, the epicenter of the virus, caused a sensation when a 70-year-old man showed the first symptoms 27 days after infection. However, according to the German coronavirus expert Christian Drosten from the Charité hospital in Berlin, such individual cases are of limited significance as exposure to a virus can be difficult to determine.
"A frequent source of error with apparently very long incubation periods is unnoticed interim exposure," Drosten said, adding that he does not see a reason to change existing incubation time estimates.
Different bodies react at different speeds
It is unsurpris