India missed around 64 lakh COVID-19 infections by early May, ICMR sero survey reveals

A cumulative 64,68,388 adult Covid-19 infections were estimated in India by early May while the country recorded only 85,940 cases by May 15, the results of the serological survey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) revealed on Friday. This shows that India missed nearly 64 lakh cases in the first three months of the pandemic, starting from March. As of Friday, the country has a caseload of 45,62,414.

The study published in the ICMR Journal said a total of 30,283 households were visited and 28,000 individuals were enrolled for the sero survey across the country. A cumulative 6,468,388 adult infections were estimated in India by early May, the study said. Of these, 8,56,062 infections estimated in zero-case districts. At the time of the survey, there were 233 districts with no cases in India.

A sero survey estimates what percentage of the population has been exposed to a virus by examining the antibodies in an individual.

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Lower than expected fatality rate

According to the ICMR findings, the COVID-19 fatality ratio shows that the percentage of deaths due to Coronavirus is way lower than the 1.7% figure. Simply put, the infection seems to be killing far fewer people in India than the official estimates

While acknowledging the dynamic nature of the pandemic in which a district with zero cases does not remain so for long, the researchers wrote that there could be under-detection of COVID-19 cases in the zero case districts due to low testing or poor access to the testing laboratories.

In four of the 15 districts, COVID-19 testing laboratory was unavailable at the district headquarters and the samples were transported to the state headquarter hospitals for diagnosis. The findings also revealed that India was still in the early stages of the pandemic in May.

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Present Coronavirus status in India

A total of 95,551 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported across the country in the past 24 hours, of which 74% active cases are from the nine-most affected states, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday. The total number of active cases across India now stands at 9,43,480 while the number of deaths has reached 76,271. The three most affected states, as per the Health Ministry, are Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh which account for 4,60,692 active cases amounting to 48.8% of the total active cases in the country.

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The other six states impacted severely by COVID-19 include Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Odisha, Assam and Chhatisgarh. "95,551 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours. Of this, Maharashtra alone has more than 23,000 and Andhra Pradesh has more than 10,000 cases," the Health Ministry said. These are the same states that account for almost 60 per cent of the recovered cases. The total number of cases in India has crossed 45 lakhs and currently stands at 45,62,415. 

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