The time between when a person is infected and when he or she shows signs or symptoms is called the incubation period. This ranges from two to fourteen days in SARS-2 (hence the recommended fourteen days of isolation) and is typically about six to seven days. For SARS-1, the incubation period was shorter, ranging from two to seven days. But there is another important interval, the latent period, which is the time between when a person is infected and when he or she becomes infectious—that is, able to spread the disease to others.
