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A new study has revealed that more than 80 percent of passengers and crew members on a cruise ship that contracted COVID-19 were asymptomatic.
The research, published in the scientific journal Thorax, notes that 128 of 217 passengers and crew members tested positive for the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. Of those, 81 percent did not show symptoms, leading researchers to conclude “the prevalence of COVID-19 on affected cruise ships is likely to be significantly underestimated.”
“It is difficult to find a reliable estimate of the number of COVID positive patients who have no symptoms,” Alan Smyth, the editor-in-chief of Thorax and professor at the University of Nottingham said in a statement.
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Smyth added the findings have implications for easing lockdown restrictions around the globe, given the possibility more people may have been infected with COVID-19 than previously believed.
“As countries progress out of lockdown, a high proportion of infected, but asymptomatic, individuals may mean that a much higher percentage of the population than expected may have been infected with COVID,” he explained.
The cruise involved in the study