KATHMANDU: More than half of Singapore's new COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic, according to co-head of Singapore's virus taskforce.

Majority of the outbreaks in Singapore, one of the countries with the highest infection in Asia with more than 38,000 cases, have occurred in dormitories housing migrant workers, according to Reuters.

Singapore had gone into two-month lockdown to curb the infection and recently reopened schools and some business although in a limited capacity.

"Based on our experience, for every symptomatic case you would have at least one asymptomatic case, the discovery was made in recent weeks as Singapore ramped up testing," Lawrence Wong was quoted as saying in Reuters.

According to wong, the asymptomatic cases have fewer chances of spreading the contagion as they are not likely to cough and sneeze like symptomatic but there are still cases of spreading the respiratory disease to others living in close quarters.

Meanwhile, in Nepal, the number of coronavirus cases have reached 3,762 with 14 deaths. Majority of COVID cases confirmed in Nepal are asymptomatic with more than half of the death caused by the diseases were detected post demise.

Most of the positive cases were identified during the testing of the people placed in quarantine after their return from abroad and during the contact tracing of the people who might have come in close contact with the infected.

With the huge number of asymptomatic patients at hand, the Ministry of Health and Population has directed hospitals to send home patients infected with the novel coronavirus who show mild or no symptom of the disease so that hospitals can treat severe cases of COVID-19.

Hospitals treating COVID-19 patients have also been told to identify asymptomatic, mild-moderate, severe and critical cases. Those with mild or no symptoms can stay at home following the ministry’s guidelines.

"If health facilities are filled with asymptomatic cases, we won’t be able to treat people with symptoms and those with severe illness,” said Samir Kumar Adhikari, assistant spokesperson for the health ministry.

Some of the COVID-19 patients show signs of the disease within 14 days and some develop symptoms after 21 days or even later. Older people and those with underlying medical problems, such as high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes, are more likely to develop serious illness. But some may not show any symptom at all.