Governmental survey: 300 million Indians contracted "Corona"
A source familiar with the government antibody survey said that about a quarter of India's population of 1.35 billion people may have been infected with the Coronavirus, indicating that the actual number of infections there is much more than the official toll.
India has recorded 10.8 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, the second highest number of cases in the world after the United States.
But the survey indicates that the actual number of cases in India may have exceeded 300 million.
The state-run Indian Council of Medical Research that conducted the survey said it would present its findings at a press conference on Thursday.
The source declined to be named prior to the official announcement, and it was not immediately clear how many people participated in the latest survey.
A survey conducted by the New Delhi metropolitan government this week concluded that more than half of the city's 20 million residents may have contracted the coronavirus.
The head of Thirocare Technologies, Inc., said past tests that separate tests conducted by the company on more than 700,000 across India revealed that 55 percent of the population may have already been infected with the virus.
The World Health Organization says that between 60 and 70% of the population must acquire immunity to break the chain of transmission.
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