COVID incubation period gets shorter with each new variant. What it reveals?
Premium- Study found that the COVID incubation period fell from an average of five days with an Alpha infection to 3.42 days with Omicron
Coronavirus incubation period, i.e. the time between when you are exposed to the virus and when the symptoms start showing, is getting shorter with each new variant, a new study has revealed. The incubation period for a virus helps public health experts and the government to determine the isolation period and other factors. Typically, the incubation period for COVID is longer than other respiratory viral infections such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and rhinovirus.
For this, Beijing's Peking University and Tsinghua University scientists followed over 140 candidates infected with different variants. The study was published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
The researchers also noted that incubation periods can vary across different age groups and severity of disease. They found that the COVID incubation period fell from an average of five days with an Alpha infection to 3.42 days with Omicron
Incubation periods for different COVID variants:
For the original COVID strain that was found in 2019 in Wuhan, the incubation period was around 5.2 days. The Alpha variant took about five days for symptoms to develop after exposure. Meanwhile, for the Beta variant, the incubation period is 4.5 days. For Delta, the same was 4.41 days, while for Omicron it is 3.42 days.
“The findings of this study suggest that SARS-CoV-2 has evolved and mutated continuously throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, producing variants with different enhanced transmission and virulence," the study authors noted. “Identifying the incubation period of different variants is a key factor in determining the isolation period."
Why knowing the incubation period is important?
The findings are significant for places like China and Hong Kong, which maintain a Covid Zero policy intended to eliminate any signs of the virus as quickly as possible. Everyone who is infected and all foreign travelers are expected to isolate throughout the potential incubation period to prevent transmission to others. Both China and Hong Kong have recently reduced quarantine periods for new arrivals as part of their efforts to revive their economies, a Bloomberg report suggested.
The experts have however warned the longer a virus can replicate inside a person before causing any symptoms, the easier it can unknowingly spread to others with whom the infected person comes in contact with.
(With inputs from agencies)
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