New Delhi:

India's COVID-19 caseload went past 28 lakh with a record single-day spike of 69,652 infections, while the recoveries increased to 20,96,664 on Thursday pushing the recovery rate to 73.91 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The total cases of coronavirus infections mounted to 28,36,925, while the death toll climbed to 53,866 with 977 new fatalities being reported in a day, the data updated at 8 am showed.

Case fatality rate has declined to 1.90 per cent.

There are 6,86,395 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which is 24.20 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative total of 3,26,61,252 samples have been tested up to August 19 with 9,18,470 samples being tested on Wednesday.

One in four Indians could have been infected with the coronavirus

At least one in four people in India may have been infected with the coronavirus – a much higher number than official government figures suggest, the head of leading private laboratory says.

Dr. A. Velumani said an analysis of 270,000 antibody tests conducted by his company Thyrocare across India showed the presence of antibodies in an average of 26% of the people, indicating they had already been exposed to the coronavirus.

“This is a much higher percentage than we had expected. The presence of antibodies is uniform across all age groups, including children,” Velumani told Reuters.

Thyrocare’s findings are in line with government surveys done in Indian cities such as Mumbai, which showed that 57 per cent of the population in its crowded slum areas had been exposed to the coronavirus.

The Thyrocare survey covers paid and tested patients, covering 600 cities in India for the last seven weeks, Velumani added. If the current trend continues, the percentage of India’s population having antibodies may reach 40% before the end of December.

India currently has a total of 2.8 million cases, third only behind Brazil and the United States globally, but active patients are less than a fourth of its total caseload, according to health ministry figures.

On Wednesday, the world’s second-most populous country reported more than 64,000 new cases of the novel coronavirus in a single day, with more than 1,000 deaths in the same period.

29% Delhiites have antibodies for COVID-19, shows sero survey

Meanwhile,antibodies against Covid-19 infection have been found in 29.1 per cent of people in the latest sero-prevalence survey in the national capital, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Thursday.

Interacting with reporters, he said, 15,000 representative samples were taken in the August 1-7 survey from 11 districts here, and the next exercise will begin from September 1.

The sero-prevalence found in North East district was 29 per cent, South district 27 per cent, South East 33 per cent and New Delhi 24 per cent, Jain said.

There has been an increaseof 6 per cent to 50 per cent in prevalence of antibodies among people in various districts compared to the prevalence found in the previous survey, he said.

Sero-prevalence of antibodies found in males was 28.3 per cent, and in females 32.2 per cent in the latest survey, the minister said.

Sero-prevalence of antibodies against Covid-19 found in age group of less than 18 was 34.7 per cent, in 18-50 years 28.5 per cent and 31.2 per cent in 50 years and above, Jain said.