SOME patients who contracted coronavirus died within a matter of hours – after showing NO symptoms, it’s reported.
Staff at a nursing home in Washington State – which has been at the centre of a deadly outbreak – warned that Covid-19 was “volatile and unpredictable”.
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The Life Care Center, in Kirkland, Washington, said that 15 of its patients had died of the new coronavirus.
Some of the victims had gone from “no symptoms to death in just a matter of a few hours”, staff warned.
Tim Killian, a spokesman for the care home, told the New York Times: “It was surprising and shocking to us that we have seen that level of escalation from symptoms to death.”
He said that six other residents were ill and the rest were in the process of being tested.
Not enough test kits
Three workers were in hospital – one of them had been confirmed as having the virus.
Meanwhile, 70 of the care homes’ 180 members of staff were also sick – but there weren’t enough test kits for them, Mr Killian added.
Health experts have said that care at the nursing home should be prioritised as it mainly houses elderly people.
From the little known about the new coronavirus so far, experts believe it is impacting older people the most.
They are at a higher risk of developing serious complications, such as pneumonia, and even death.
Coronavirus is also thought to be deadlier for those with underlying health issues, such as diabetes, heart disease and lung problems.
The total number of people killed by Covid-19 in the US has reached 31 – and 24 of those have been in Washington State.
There have also been more than 1,000 positive cases of the bug since the outbreak began in January.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Fox News: “Don’t go to crowded places, think twice before a long plane trip, and for goodness sake don’t go on any cruises.
“Don’t wait for community spread. Now is the time to do social distancing, whether there is spread in your community or not.”
It comes as researchers say that it can take up to five days for symptoms of the bug to show.
The new study, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US, found that the average incubation period is 5.1 days.
And they say that almost all – 97.5 per cent – of those who develop symptoms appeared to do so within 11.5 days of infection.
Coronaviruses in humans that cause common colds have average incubation periods of around three days.
The estimates, published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, also found that 101 out of every 10,000 cases will develop symptoms after 14 days of active monitoring or quarantine.
