How rare is asymptomatic spread?

On Monday, The World Health Organizations's Maria Van Kerkhove said the spread of Covid-19 by someone who is not showing symptoms appears to be rare.

However, on Tuesday, she set out to clarify this statement, saying, "We do know that some people who are asymptomatic or some people who don't have symptoms can transmit the virus on. So what we need to better understand is how many of the people in the population don't have symptoms and separately how many of those individuals go on to transmit to others."

Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, added, "I'm absolutely convinced that this is occurring — the question is how much. There's much to be answered on this, there's much that is unknown."

Bottom line: Asymptomatic spread is still possible, and that means we should all still act like we have the virus.