Coronavirus pandemic | Asymptomatic patients without fever cannot infect others: Health Ministry

As per government data, nearly 80% of India’s COVID-19 patients are asymptomatic and as such the discharge policy has been revised in the country since such patients can recover at home after spending 10 days at a dedicated coronavirus healthcare facility.

Moneycontrol News

May 21, 2020 / 02:06 PM IST

The Union Health Ministry announced on May 20 that pre-symptomatic, moderately symptomatic, and mildly symptomatic COVID-19 patients who have not got fever in the past 10 days do not pose a threat of spreading the infection to others.

This announcement follows the May 9 government order which had tweaked the discharge policy for coronavirus patients, indicating that positive cases exhibiting mild symptoms do not require hospitalisation and can recover at home.

Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry, clarified on May 20 that the decision was taken based on evidence that asymptomatic patients cannot infect others, said a report by Mint.

Notably, nearly 80 percent of India’s COVID-19 patients are asymptomatic, the government has claimed.

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COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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