At the stroke of 9 pm on Sunday, India lit up to candles, diyas and even firecrackers as people expressed resolve in fight against novel coronavirus or Covid-19 spread, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "9 pm, 9 minute" appeal.

Amid the nationwide lockdown over Covid-19 spread and continuous surge in cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to citizens to switch off all lights at home at 9 pm Sunday (April 5) and light candles or diyas -- or use the flashlights on their mobile phones - was as a symbolic gesture of solidarity and unity at the time of crisis.

Even as the citizens went to their balconies to light candles or even flash mobile phone flashlights, the picture on Sunday remained grim as a total of 295 Covid-19 positive cases were reported in the country in the last 24 hours.

As per the data provided by the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), till 9 pm on April 5, 295 people tested for Covid-19.

The death toll due to the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to 89 and the cases climbed to over 3,570 in the country on Sunday after new infections were reported in the past 24 hours.

Delhi has reported the highest number of confirmed cases at 503, the ministry data stated.

Earlier in the day, while addressing a media briefing, Joint Secretary, Home Ministry, Lav Agarwal said that 472 new Covid-19 cases and 11 deaths have been reported since Saturday.

Rate of doubling of Covid-19 cases 4.1 days; Jamaat incident acted as catalyst

The rate of doubling of Covid-19 cases in India is at present 4.1 days but if the cases linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation would not have happened, it would have been 7.4 days, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.

The health ministry further said that the rate of doubling of Covid-19 cases in India is at present 4.1 days but if the cases linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation would not have happened, it would have been 7.4 days.

"If the Tablighi Jamaat incident had not taken place and we compare the rate of doubling - that is in how many days the cases have doubled, we will see that currently, it is about 4.1 days (including Jamaat cases) and if the incident had not taken place and additional cases had not come then the doubling rate would have been around 7.4 days," Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said.

In the national capital alone, over 63 per cent Covid-19 positive cases were linked to the Tablighi Jamaat meet that took place in Nizammuddin last month.

Source: India today