Asymptomatic and symptomatic infected people are both infected, but there are some differences in their clinical symptoms and management. Asymptomatic infected persons are in a sense considered to be in the incubation period of a confirmed case, or a mildly confirmed case.
1. Asymptomatic infected persons are usually those who do not present or notice symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, or malaise, and no imaging changes are found on CT examination. However, those who are found to be positive on nucleic acid screening for novel coronaviruses are referred to as asymptomatic infected persons; they generally do not require special treatment, as there is no specific drug for novel coronaviruses, and treatment needs to be based on the symptoms that occur.
2. Symptomatic infection is defined as a positive virologic test, along with clinical symptoms such as fever, cough or dry cough, sore throat, and abnormal blood or imaging test results. They can be categorized into four types according to their severity: light, ordinary, heavy and critical; they need to be isolated and treated in designated hospitals or prescribed places, with general treatment and medication as the mainstay.
It should be noted that asymptomatic infected persons still need to undergo isolation, observation, monitoring of signs and other measures in accordance with the requirements for confirmed cases. If defined as asymptomatic infected persons, they need to inform their communities in a timely manner and contact the designated hospitals with the help of staff to actively cooperate with further treatment measures.