Coronavirus Incubation Period and Stages

What is the incubation period?

Time from Exposure to the Development of Symptoms:

Ex – It’s the time period where viruses/bacteria enter into the body to the development of symptoms.

The incubation period of the coronavirus is estimated to be between 2 and 14 days based on the following sources:

• The World Health Organization(WHO) reported an incubation period for COVID-19 between 2 and 10 days.
• China’s National Health Commission (NHC)had initially estimated an incubation period from 10 to 14 days.
• The United States’ CDC estimates the incubation period for COVID-19 to be between 2 and 14 days.
• CN, a leading Chinese online community for physicians and health care professionals, is reporting an incubation period of “3 to 7 days, up to 14 days”.

The point of the Incubation period now came into limelight because  14 people who visited Markaz in Nizamuddin were found and taken to the quarantine. Even though all the 14 members did not have any symptoms of the virus still, the government made tests and the outcome was positive. The Markaz took place from March 13 to 15th. So, its already been 15 days and because of the immunity power in them, they might experience the symptoms within 2 to 3 days.

STAGES OF CORONAVIRUS

Image Source: dw.com

Stage-1

In the first stage of a pandemic, the disease doesn’t spread locally – cases reported are usually people who have had a travel history to an already affected country.

Ex- In this stage virus was restricted to the person who came from abroad. It didn’t spread to anyone.

Stage-II

This is the stage of local transmission – when people who have brought the virus into the country transmit it to people they come in contact with, usually friends and family. At this stage, it is easy to trace spread and quarantine people.

Today India is in stage – II.

STAGE-III

The third stage is when the source of the infection is untraceable; this stage is identified by people who haven’t had travel history getting affected by the virus – once here spread is extremely contagious and difficult to control.

Ex – In stage 1 person A got infected abroad and came to India. In the C2^nd stage of infection person, A will spread the virus to person B (family members, friends and people who came in close contact). But in stage 3 person B transfer virus to C (he is nowhere related to person A).

STAGE – VI

So far, China has been the only country to experience Stage 4, where the spread is practically uncontrollable and there are many major clusters of infection all over the country.

                                                                           -Kodanda Rama Reddy

(Doctor of Pharmacy), Frontlinesmedia