What is overt infection?

Overt infections are those which are apparent infections. Overt is defined as open and observable as opposed to covert which is hidden, concealed, or secret. This can be contrasted to the situation in which a person is in the prodromal stage of infection, where the patient is highly infectious but is not showing symptoms yet, or of healthy carriers who carry infectious microbes but appear completely healthy. In short, an overt infection means that you/they know you're infected.