Photo: Courtesy of Shanghai Airport

A report led by China’s CDC chief showed that from April to mid-October 2020, half of the arrivals in China who tested positive for the novel coronavirus were silent carriers, and as the time went on, the proportion of the asymptomatic patients has grown higher, with those from the Philippines, Russia, Singapore and the US topping the list. 

The research report, entitled Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infections Among Persons Entering China From April 16 to October 12, 2020, looked at all the arrivals from April 16, 2020 to October 12, 2020, collecting their nucleic acid tests and following monitoring data, covering a total of 19.40 million people. Among them, 3,103 tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the report. 

However, 51.9 percent of them, or 1,612 people, showed no symptoms when they arrived and even on the 13th day of the collective quarantine they were deemed to be asymptomatic patients. 

Arrivals from the Philippines who tested positive accounted for 16.1 percent of the total arrivals, which was the highest group, followed by those from Russia, Singapore and the US. Those four countries accounted for 43.7 percent of the total arrivals that tested positive for the virus.