‘Vast majority’ with COVID-19 are asymptomatic — UK’s Office of National Statistics

The vast majority of people who contract coronavirus never show any symptoms, The Daily Telegraph reports the first analysis of antibody tests by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) has shown, leading to fears the new test, track and trace programme will not work.

Under UK government plans, those showing symptoms are required to self-isolate and be tested while the National Health Service (NHS) app will inform people who have been in close contact so they can also quarantine.

But The Daily Telegraph reports, new figures show 70% of people testing positive for the virus do not have symptoms at the time of their test, or in the week before or after. Just 21% reported symptoms on the actual day of testing. Likewise, for people who reported a symptom on the day of the swab test, only 2.6% were actually found to have coronavirus…..more