7.55 million infections were recorded

India: Coronavirus could infect half of the population by next February

Indian students wear masks in the classroom.

A.F.B.

A member of a government committee tasked with preparing expectations about the outbreak of the new Corona virus in India said yesterday that the virus is likely to affect at least half of the country's population, which is 1.3 billion people, by next February.

India has recorded, to date, 7.55 million cases of Coronavirus, making it second behind the United States in terms of the number of infections.

But a Reuters statistics showed that "Covid-19" infections are decreasing in India, after a peak in mid-September, with an average of 61,390 new infections recorded per day.

Manendra Agrawal, a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur and a member of the federal government’s committee, told Reuters: “Our calculation model estimates that about 30% of the population is currently infected, and it could increase (the percentage) to 50%, by February.

The committee's estimate of the spread of the virus, currently, is much greater than the results of the tests conducted by the federal government, which show that only about 14% of the population was infected with the virus until September.

• About 30% of the Indian population is currently infected.

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