What is incubation period of Covid 19 disease?

Today let us discuss about Covid 19 disease and its incubation period. Initially this disease being new to the world we had very little information about it. Now after seeing lots of cases around the world a lot of information is getting gathered.

Since the last 1 and half year the human population has been suffering from Covid 19. This virus has brought the entire world to its knees. Developing countries and poor nations like Brazil and India have experienced the wrath of Covid 19 and still continue to be so.

What is the incubation period?

The incubation period is the number of days between when you’re infected with something and when you might see symptoms.

So incubation period implies the time period you are likely to show the symptoms from the day of exposure to the disease.

The incubation period is different for different diseases. Like for influenza it is from a few hours or for AIDS and TB it can be many years.

Can a person spread the disease during the incubation period?

The answer in a single word is yes. That is exactly the point of concern. During the incubation period you do not have any symptoms of the disease. You do not know that you are infected unless you do specific tests for the disease.

But the real fear is infection can spread from infected person to the people around.

What is Covid 19?

Covid 19 is a viral disease. It is caused by the novel coronavirus. First the cases of this disease were noted in Wuhan city of the china.

Symptoms of Covid-19 are fever, fatigue, feeling of weakness, soreness of throat, cold, cough, breathlessness, chest pain, loose motions and abdominal pain.

Some patients also experience skin rashes and loss of smell and taste sensations.

Covid 19 disease is mild to moderate in most of the patients and it may cause severe pneumonia in some people. The pneumonial can get complicated with acute respiratory distress syndrome and death.

Patients may need oxygen and ventilatory support in ICU in critical cases. Some patients may have long term consequences like fibrosis of the lung.

This virus causes blood clots which are small in size in small lung vessels damaging the lungs.

How does covid 19 spread?

Covid 19 spreads by spread of novel coronavirus. It spread by human to human transmission. 

Airborne droplets are the main mode of transmission of the coronavirus. When a person with disease or a person in incubation periods come in contact with susceptible people the virus may spread person to person.

Transmission by surfaces and daily used objectives harbouring the virus has been noted.

What is the incubation period of Covid 19 disease?

Incubation period of Covid 19 virus is the time period of contact with a person with disease or person incubation period to the appearance of the first symptom in a susceptible person.

Initially when the disease came for the first time it was not known. As the information is getting collected and many studies indicate the incubation period is between 1-6 days with the median of 2-3 days.

What does this implies?

This incubation period 1-6 days simply implies that you may get symptoms of the disease anywhere between 1-6 days of coming in contact with the infected person.

It helps in tracing the contacts of people. It helps us to know the people who should get tested and who should get isolated.

How does the incubation period help practically?

Practically the incubation period suggests the contacts to be traced. Tracing contact is extremely important in containment of the virus and stopping it from spreading in the community.

Many countries do not have adequate health infrastructure so if all the people become sick at the same time, the health system collapses and people suffer a lot. Knowledge of incubation period helps us to stop or to slow down the spread of virus.

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