Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

March 10, 2020

The Incubation Period of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) From Publicly Reported Confirmed Cases: Estimation and Application

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  • Lauer et al report that the median incubation period for COVID-19 is 5 days and 97.5% of those who develop symptoms will do so within 11.5 days (CI, 8.2 to 15.6 days) of infection. This means that, 101 out of every 10,000 cases will develop symptoms after monitoring or quarantine. The public health implications of this is that there is need for longer monitoring periods.

Lauer et al. (Mar 10, 2020). The Incubation Period of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) From Publicly Reported Confirmed Cases: Estimation and Application. Annals of Internal Medicine. Print downloaded Mar 10 from https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-0504