“We don’t know how many people are asymptomatic, because we haven’t had widespread enough testing,” explains Dr. Alan Taege, MD, an infectious disease specialist at the Cleveland Clinic. “The only way to know that is to test full populations or very large numbers of people. There have been a few small studies done where the estimates vary quite a lot. One study estimated it was as high as 40 or 45% of people, another one did a meta analysis and narrowed it down to 25%.”
All this to say: There are probably larger numbers of asymptomatic cases than what’s being reported, because if people are feeling fine, they’re not likely to seek out a test. “It is likely that there are many asymptomatic people at schools, and among those who perform jobs such as preparing and serving food,” explains Dr. Mir. “It is a very challenging situation to monitor unless you do a lot of testing. Those who are asymptomatic likely do not get tested unless there’s a need, but it is important to keep in mind that COVID is still very much here.”