3 ms·
Detecting small numbers of COVID-19 cases against the larger background of flu and other respiratory illnesses is not easy. It's quite likely to go undetected c
by Merrill 7y ago
Detecting small numbers of COVID-19 cases against the larger background of flu and other respiratory illnesses is not easy. It's quite likely to go undetected clinically until there is a fairly large number of unexplained pneumonia deaths of related people in a specific location. By this time there has been a lot of local exposure and spread.
"Problems with CDC coronavirus test delay expanded U.S. screening" - https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/20/cdc-coronavirus-116529 https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/20/cdc-coronavirus-116...
- mantap 7y agoYes, a small number of cases could go unnoticed. But you were talking about large clusters. Say 100 people are infected and 15 turn up at hospital with difficulty breathing. For at least one of them, a doctor is going to take a history and notice the characteristic progression (this disease is the most famous disease in the world right now), then report it to their health authority. The large % of cases that require hospitalisation is a terrifying aspect of COVID-19, but it does increase the chance of detection.
- swsieber 7y agoYes, at that point several large clusters will appear within days because of how fast it spreads.