The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) released a new COVID-19 infection survey Tuesday revealing that more than half of those who had a “strong” positive test result did not report any symptoms.
The latest ONS survey data shows that 53% of strong positive cases detected in the period from December to March were completely asymptomatic.
Our latest #COVID19 characteristics release shows the symptoms reported by those who had a strong positive test result for COVID-19.
Of those people, around half reported experiencing no symptoms https://t.co/cDMmUcNugy pic.twitter.com/nKTBMdi21S
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) April 8, 2021
“The analysis in this section looks at each person who tested positive,” the report says. Researchers excluded participants who tested positive, yet scored low on “viral load” and the strength of the positive test. This helped the researchers ensure that individuals “very early or later on in their infection” did not dilute the data. (RELATED: ‘We’ll Know It When We See It’: Fauci Doesn’t Know When Pandemic Will End)
“Around half of those we tested did not report any symptoms even whilst having high levels of the virus present in their body. This underlines that people in the community may unknowingly have the virus and potentially transmit it to others,” said Sarah Crofts, the senior statistician for the ONS COVID-19 Infection Survey, according to The Independent.
The CDC previously announced that the UK strain of the virus, B.1.1.7, has become the most common in the U.S.