Incubation Period

In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that the incubation period for the SARS CoV 2 is approximately 5 days.

About the Term

The term incubation period refers to the time taken for the symptoms of a particular infection to appear in a person after exposure to the virus i.e. time lapse between the exposure and the first sign of the disease. This of importance to the health workers to carry out the disease prevention, control and quarantine processes.

Incubation Period of SAS CoV 2

The incubation period of the new coronavirus could range anywhere between 2 to 14 days according to the Centre for Disease Control. The recent studies suggest that majority of the cases have an incubation period of 5 days.

Latency Period

The term latency period is different from incubation period. Latency period is the time lapse between the infection and infectiousness. While some diseases are not infectious during the incubation period, diseases like COVID-19 are. The COVID-19 patients may spread the virus even during the incubation period and hence more difficult to control.