Part of what makes coronavirus so highly contagious is its sneaky, asymptomatic incubation period.
While just 10 percent of the infected study subjects remained asymptomatic for a full 14 days, the researchers found that the median incubation period was 7.75 days, three to four days later than most previous estimates.
"By providing health authorities with a potentially more accurate figure for the incubation period, the results could inform guidelines for containment efforts such as quarantines and studies investigating the disease's transmission," the researchers shared in a press release.
The new study is likely more accurate than previous studies on the subject of incubation because it used the largest patient sample in any such analysis to date.