Only 1.8% of India's population infected till now: Health ministry

Majority of Indians remain vulnerable to Covid-19 as only less than 2% of the population have been infected by the virus as per official record, the health ministry has said. Though the total number of cases are high, barely 1.8% of the total population have been infected, it said on Tuesday.

“Despite the high number of cases, we have been able to contain the spread to under 2% of the population. This should also make us wary that 98% of our population remained vulnerable to the virus. We cannot let our guard down. Hence continued focus on containment is critical,” joint secretary (health) Lav Agarwal said.

As per health ministry statistics, 10.1% of the population in the US has been infected, 9% in France, 7.4% in Italy, 7.3% in Brazil, 6% in Turkey and 3.4% in Russia.


There has been a decline in case positivity even as India tested high numbers. Between May 4 and 10, the positivity was 21.4%, down to 16.9% between May 11 and 17. The number of tests have increased from 1,816,139 to 1,845,672 in the corresponding period. The number of states with 1 lakh and over active cases has also declined from 11 last week to 8 this week.