NEW DELHI, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The first national sero-survey conducted by India's top health research body Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) indicates that the country may have had 6.4 million COVID-19 patients by early May, when samples were collected.

"A total of 6,468,388 adult infections were estimated in India by the early May," the survey report said.

The survey, published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, suggests that 0.73 percent adults in the country were exposed to COVID-19.

During the survey, carried out from May 11 to June 4, blood samples from 28,000 people across the country were tested for IgG antibodies using COVID Kavach ELISA kit.

As per the survey sero-positivity was the highest in the age group of 18 to 45 years (43.3 percent), followed by those between 46 and 60 years (39.5 percent). It was the lowest among those above 60 (17.2 percent).

For every confirmed case of COVID-19 in May, there were 82-130 infections that went undetected.

The survey report said overall infections were low with less than 1 percent of the adult population being exposed to COVID-19 by then.

"The findings of our survey indicated that the overall sero-prevalence in India was low, with less than one percent of the adult population exposed to SARS-CoV-2 by mid-May 2020. The low prevalence observed in most districts indicates that India is in early phase of the epidemic and the majority of the Indian population is still susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection," said the report.

The survey also showed that around May and June, the infections had already spread to rural India.

Sero-positivity was the highest at 69.4 percent in the rural areas (villages) while in the urban slums it was 15.9 percent and in urban non-slums it was recorded at 14.6 percent.

India is in the grip of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the cases are increasing with each passing day.

India Friday said the number of COVID-19 cases in the country has reached 4,562,414 including 76,271 deaths.

During the past 24 hours, 96,551 new COVID-19 cases and 1,209 related deaths were recorded in the country. Enditem

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