Universal properties of the dynamics of the Covid-19 pandemic

We present evidence for existence of a universal lower bound for the initial growth rate of the epidemic curve of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. This can be used to infer that, on average, an asymptomatic infected individual is infectious during 5.6 ± 0.3 days. We further present evidence of an average time scale of 12 days for halving the number of new cases, or new deaths, during the extinction period of the first phase of the epidemic.