Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Feb;25(5):2000062.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.5.2000062.

Incubation period of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infections among travellers from Wuhan, China, 20-28 January 2020

Jantien A Backer  1 , Don Klinkenberg  1 , Jacco Wallinga  1   2
Affiliations

Incubation period of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infections among travellers from Wuhan, China, 20-28 January 2020

Jantien A Backer et al. Euro Surveill. 2020 Feb.

Abstract

A novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is causing an outbreak of viral pneumonia that started in Wuhan, China. Using the travel history and symptom onset of 88 confirmed cases that were detected outside Wuhan in the early outbreak phase, we estimate the mean incubation period to be 6.4 days (95% credible interval: 5.6-7.7), ranging from 2.1 to 11.1 days (2.5th to 97.5th percentile). These values should help inform 2019-nCoV case definitions and appropriate quarantine durations.

Keywords: 2019-nCoV; Wuhan; exposure; incubation period; novel coronavirus; symptom onset.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Exposure to reporting timeline for confirmed 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) cases with travel history from Wuhan, sorted by symptom onset date, data 20–28 January 2020 (n = 88)
Figure 2
Figure 2
The cumulative density function of the estimated Weibull incubation period distribution for travellers infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Wuhan, China, data 20–28 January 2020
Figure 3
Figure 3
Box-and-whisker-plots of estimated incubation periods for coronaviruses from different studies
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization (WHO). WHO Statement Regarding Cluster of Pneumonia Cases in Wuhan, China. Beijing: WHO; 9 Jan 2020. [Accessed 26 Jan 2020]. https://www.who.int/china/news/detail/09-01-2020-who-statement-regarding...
    1. Zhu N, Zhang D, Wang W, Li X, Yang B, Song J, et al. A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med. 24 Jan 2020:NEJMoa2001017. 10.1056/NEJMoa2001017 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Imai N, Dorigatti I, Cori A, Donnelly C, Riley S, Ferguson NM. Report 2: Estimating the potential total number of novel Coronavirus cases in Wuhan City, China. London; 2020. Available from: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-...
    1. Leung K, Wu JT, Leung GM. Nowcasting and forecasting the potential domestic and international spread of the 2019-nCoV outbreak originating in Wuhan, China: a modelling study. Lancet. 31 Jan 2020. Available from: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30260... - PubMed
    1. Nishiura H, Jung SM, Linton NM, Kinoshita R, Yang Y, Hayashi K, et al. The Extent of Transmission of Novel Coronavirus in Wuhan, China, 2020. J Clin Med. 2020;9(2):330. 10.3390/jcm9020330 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms