August 5, 2020

The Incubation Period of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2A Systematic Review

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Clinical Characteristics and Health Care Setting

• [pre-print, not peer reviewed] A systematic review of 64 articles aggregating the experiences of 854 patients suggests an estimated median incubation period (time from exposure to symptom onset) of 4.9 days (95% CI 4.6-5.2). However, including 81 asymptomatic and presymptomatic patients, along with 31 outlier cases with incubation periods exceeding 14 days, Li et al. estimate that people in the 97.5 percentile would experience an incubation period of 19.3 days (95% CI 17.4-21.4), which is longer than the 14-day quarantine period that is typically recommended.  

Li. (Aug 4, 2020). The Incubation Period of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2A Systematic Review.  Pre-print downloaded on August 5 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.01.20164335