[Salamander]

Certain viruses have a ‘grace period’ between the time you are infected/symptomatic and the time you become able to infect others.

Hopefully, this is like that.

:-\

[RegulatorCountry]

You have to be “shedding” the virus to be contagious. There is an incubation period before that level of infection is reached that varies, by the nature of virus as well as by individual.

[21twelve]

I’ve read numerous accounts (I think the Canada Health Site was one), where once the virus enters your body it can take 3-21 days before symptoms show, and once the symptoms show one is viral. And I think he didn’t start showing symptoms until a few days after his arrival. Lets hope he wasn’t out and about too much once he started feeling ill.

OTOH, the virus can last 2-3 days IIRC on surfaces of things. He held his dieing relative. I wonder how much of the virus was on his clothing, and if he wore those same clothes on his trip?

[palmer]

From what I read here: /focus/bloggers/3210190/posts?page=83#83 the virus has to replicate in a less-than-optimal manner in some local area via the microphages. Once the body's immune response kicks in, the virus replicates inside the blood vessels, thus spreading and replicating quickly. I can imagine (although not an expert) that the victim is not very contagious until after the immune response facilitates its spread. IOW, the victim would be symptomatic at that point. However there would also be a nonzero chance of contagion before that.