People who have been infected with the novel coronavirus but show no symptoms have been proven to be less contagious, a health expert said.

"There are cases around the country where people tested positive for the virus but they don't have any symptoms. People began to suspect that the virus may have mutated. At the moment, we didn't see any mutation of the novel coronavirus," Qiu Haibo, a member on the expert panel of the National Health Committee and deputy president of Zhongda Hospital of Southeast University, said during a news conference held in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, on Monday evening.

Those patients are less contagious because without symptoms that include coughing and sneezing, the virus is unlikely to be passed on to others. People shouldn't be worried about those patients, Qiu said.