10th February, 2020
A Chinese epidemiologist, Zhong Nanshan co-authored an article that predicted the incubation period of the new coronavirus that has killed more than 900 people in China to be as long as 24 days.
Zhong, who is famed for his work managing the 2003 SARS outbreak and was appointed a top advisor for this crisis, wrote that the incubation could be as short as zero days or long as 24 – ten days longer than previously believed.
The article, which is still awaiting peer review, indicates that the mean incubation period is three days, Hong Kong’s Now News reports.
Quarantine provisions for those suspected of carrying the infection currently extend 14 days, during which time the carrier may not exhibit symptoms.
Some experts have suggested that the virus can be transmitted during this asymptomatic incubation, although others have cast doubt on this.