This article was originally published on March 19, 2020.
Knowing the incubation period of an infectious disease—the time from exposure to the causative agent to when symptoms first appear—can provide important information during an outbreak, including when infected individuals will be symptomatic and most likely to spread the disease. Because time to symptom onset reflects pathogen growth, replication rate, and toxin excretion, the incubation period provides clues about the cause and source of a disease when these factors are unknown.
The incubation period for a given disease also offers insight into prognosis, including severity of the disease and how long an individual’s illness might be expected to last. Potential treatment strategies may also be inferred from the incubation period.
In the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the incubation period for the infectious coronavirus is between roughly 2 and 14 days. This has important implications for disease surveillance and for preventive measures, such as self-quarantine, which should last at least 14 days for persons who may have been exposed to the virus.
Learn more about the incubation period and symptoms of COVID-19 from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Symptoms of Coronavirus.
Learn more about self-quarantine from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s When to Quarantine.