This transmission electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 -- also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19 -- isolated from a patient in the US. Virus particles are shown emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. The spikes on the outer edge of the virus particles give coronaviruses their name, crown-like. Credit: NIAID-RML

The World Health Organization said Tuesday that only one percent of new coronavirus cases registered in China were without symptoms, which appears to bely fears the virus spreads via people who appear healthy.

"Evidence from China is that only one percent of reported cases do not have symptoms, and most of those cases develop symptoms within two days," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva.

© 2020 AFP