More than 63 million people in India could have contracted Covid-19, health authorities said on Tuesday – about 10 times more than officially reported figures.
A national study of more than 29,000 people in 700 villages and counties found that about one in 15 people over the age of 10 have antibodies to the coronavirus, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research. The study was conducted from mid-August to mid-September.
Antibody tests, also known as serological tests, check proteins called antibodies in the immune system that indicate whether someone has been exposed to the virus.
Of the country’s 1.3 billion citizens, more than 966 million are at least 10 years old, according to the most recent government census in 2011. If one in 15 people in this group became infected with Covid-19, that would be 63.78 million people in total. .
