NEARLY half of people in Scotland receiving a "strong" positive test result for Covid had no obvious symptoms of infection.
Data from the UK-wide Office for National Statistics survey found that around 45 per cent of people in Scotland who were identified as having high levels of the virus between December 1 and April 4 did not report experiencing any symptoms.
The findings again highlight the danger of asymptomatic individuals potentially being able to spread the virus in the community.
READ MORE: Warning Covid passports could actually harm vaccine uptake
Among those who did report symptoms in the seven days prior to being tested, fatigue or weakness was the most common - affecting more than one in three people.
This was followed by headache, cough, sore throat, muscle ache, fever, and shortness of breath.
Loss of taste or loss of smell was reported by around one in five people experiencing Covid symptoms.
The least common symptoms were nausea/vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal pain, but taken together these "gastrointestinal" symptoms were found in one in five people who tested positive with a high viral load.
The results are based only on individuals whose swab produced a "strong" Covid result using a PCR test.
READ MORE: NHS waiting lists for elective ops balloon amid Covid crisis
The strength of the result refers to how quickly the virus is picked up in the laboratory when samples undergo a series of cycles to amplify the genetic material of the virus until it reaches a detectable threshold - known as the Ct value.
The lower the Ct value the higher the infected person's viral load, and vice versa for high Ct values.
Individuals with Ct values in excess of 30 were excluded from the analysis as it is possible they are either in the very early stages of infection or have recovered after being infected more than two weeks previously.
READ MORE: Highlands man dies from brain tumour as wife says 'loud snoring' was only symptom
In both cases, risk of transmission is low but it is impossible to distinguish between very early or latent infection using the PCR test.
Individuals with a high viral load indicated by a 'strong' positive test below 30 Ct are much more likely to be infectious.
The ONS data is based on regular sampling in the community of thousands of participants regardless of whether they are currently displaying symptoms.
It includes only residents in private households, not hospital patients or care home residents.
The ONS cautions that results for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should be "interpreted with caution" due to smaller sample sizes compared to England.
In England, just under 60% of people with a strong positive test from December 1 to April 4 had reported experiencing some Covid symptoms.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel