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Therefore, a mass surveillance system to track asymptomatic cases is critical, with special attention to females and children.Ĭoronaviruses are common respiratory pathogens causing illness in humans around the world ( 1). Symptom-based screening might fail to identify all SARS-CoV-2 infections escalating the threat of global spread and impeding containment. Children and females were more likely to present as asymptomatic COVID-19 cases and could act as unknown carriers of SARS-CoV-2. From the meta-analysis of 16 studies, comprising 2,788 SARS-CoV-2 infected patients, the pooled prevalence according to the random effect size of asymptomatic cases was 48.2% (95% CI, 30–67%). A random effects model was applied to analyze pooled data on the prevalence of asymptomatic cases among all COVID-19 patients and also by age and gender.
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The study population for this review included asymptomatic individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 reported in original articles published up to 30 April 2020. Three electronic databases, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science (WoS), were used to search the literature following the guidelines of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). This study appraised the frequency of asymptomatic individuals and estimated occurrence by age group and gender by reviewing the existing published data on asymptomatic people with COVID-19. Asymptomatic cases of SARS-CoV-2 can be unknown carriers magnifying the transmission of COVID-19.