The Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is continuing its killing spree all across the globe, and as of February 24, 2020, more than 79,000 people have been tested positive for this pathogen. The virus outbreak which initially happened in China has now spread to different countries, and the latest statistics reveal that at least 13 people have contracted the disease.

Coronavirus may spread without showing symptoms

Now, a new study has confirmed that coronavirus may spread to one person to another without showing no or very few symptoms. Scientists confirmed the asymptomatic carrier nature of coronavirus after analyzing the case of a woman who did not fall ill from the disease even after her infected family members developed symptoms like fever and pneumonia.

"A familial cluster of five patients with COVID-19 pneumonia in Anyang, China, had contact before their symptom onset with an asymptomatic family member who had traveled from the epidemic center of Wuhan. The sequence of events suggests that the coronavirus may have been transmitted by the asymptomatic carrier. The incubation period for patient one was 19 days, which is long but within the reported range of zero to 24 days," wrote the researchers in their study report, Express.co.uk reports.

Coronavirus
This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (yellow)—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19—isolated from a patient in the U.S., emerging from the surface of cells (blue/pink) cultured in the lab.Credit: NIAID-RML

In their study report, researchers noted that there is also a case of another 10-year-boy who did not develop any symptoms of coronavirus infection. Scientists believe that the asymptomatic carrier nature of coronavirus could pose a huge challenge for medical experts in the coming days, as it will make it hard to combat the spread of this disease.

Is coronavirus a Chinese bioweapon?

Since the day of the coronavirus outbreak, conspiracy theorists have been claiming that coronavirus is actually a secret bioweapon that might have escaped a Chinese secretive military lab. These conspiracy theorists believe that the Chinese government is intentionally trying to coverup what exactly had happened in the country.

Some conspiracy theorists argue that the Chinese government has intentionally created this pathogen to control the country's growing population.