By Dennis Thompson

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, March 24, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The coronavirus pandemic has caused a worldwide shift in the way people live, placing many in self-imposed exile to prevent the spread of the contagion.

But it's important to remember that four of every five infected people will have mild symptoms, perhaps so mild as to not be noticeable, experts note.

"About 80% of people get a very mild illness and they recover uneventfully. That's important to realize," said Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency medicine physician with Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Another 15% of people infected with coronavirus have more serious symptoms, and 5% develop life-threatening illness, experts say.

The actor Idris Elba is possibly the most famous mild COVID-19 case in the world. Elba tested positive for coronavirus after being exposed to another infected person, but says he did not have any symptoms.

Still, Elba has asthma, and in a live Twitter chat this week said he's worried how the virus might affect him in the days ahead.

"Yes, of course I'm worried. I'm worried about having asthma and how that could make things complicated very quickly," Elba said.

That's not an insignificant concern. People with a minor case of COVID-19 will wrangle with mild symptoms for a week to 10 days, but their cases can worsen.

Dr. Aaron Glatt, chair of medicine at Mount Sinai South Nassau in New York, said, "We have some general data that suggest people who get symptomatic for a short period of time, it can progress and they can be sicker for a week or even two weeks."

The way the virus operates within the body gives most people a good chance of developing only mild illness, Glatter said.

The coronavirus tends to shed a lot early in COVID-19 infection, which "is actually good because it produces high levels of [immune system] antibody that are protective," Glatter said.

Glatter compared COVID-19 to SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), which panicked the world in 2002-2003 and had a much higher death rate. That's because the virus peaked later in the disease, after it had gotten into the lungs.