India's COVID-19 tally of cases rose to 1,07,90,183 with 12,899 new infections being reported in a day, while the recoveries surged to 1,04,80,455, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.

The death count increased to 1,54,703 with 107 daily new fatalities, the data showed.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,04,80,455 pushing the national COVID-19 recovery rate of 97.13 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.43 per cent. The total COVID-19 active cases remained below 2 lakh.

There are 1,55,025 active coronavirus infections in the country which comprises 1.44 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

About one in four of India's 135 crore people may have been infected with the coronavirus, said a source with direct knowledge of a government serological survey, suggesting the country's real caseload was many times higher than reported.

India has confirmed 1.08 crore COVID-19 infections, the most anywhere outside the United States.

But the survey, whose findings are much more conservative than a private one from last week, indicates India's actual cases may have crossed 30 crore. The state-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which conducted the survey, said it would only share the findings at a news conference on Thursday.

The source declined to be named ahead of the official announcement. It was not immediately clear how many people participated in the latest survey.

Following another survey done in August and September using blood samples of more than 29,000 people older than 10, ICMR had concluded that one in 15 Indians had COVID-19 antibodies. The figure jumped to one in six in densely-populated urban slums.

Source: NDTV

BDST: 1230 HRS, FEB 04, 2021
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