A study conducted by researchers from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) revealed that the actual COVID-19 infections in India were 17 times higher than the official figure. According to government estimates, the COVID-19 virus has infected nearly 4.5 million people in India. However, according to a study published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases (IJID), the number of coronavirus infections in the country ranged from 58 to 98 crore. 

According to BHU geneticist Professor Mr. Gyaneshwer Chaubey, this discrepancy was due to the overwhelming number of asymptomatic patients, which was several times greater than the genuinely reported infection. For the study, the researchers conducted a survey between the periods of September and December 2020.

The survey included 2,301 people, especially street vendors in urban areas of fourteen Indian districts in six states. The researchers claimed that antibody tests performed on people following a coronavirus outbreak could determine the severity of the infection.

According to the findings, a large proportion of the Indian population is asymptomatic for COVID infection. Also, the age group 26–35 had the highest number of asymptomatic people. Hence, they concluded that the number of cases reported by the government was several times lower than the actual incidence of infection.