India saw the highest single-day spike of 357 fatalities and 9,996 cases, pushing the death toll to 8,102 and the nationwide tally to 2,86,579.

Even as the country records a consistent rise in the total number of coronavirus cases, the ICMR has termed the lockdown phases as “successful” in containing the rapid spread of the virus, rejecting there is “community transmission” in India. This, on the day the country saw the highest single-day spike of 357 fatalities and 9,996 cases, pushing the death toll to 8,102 and the nationwide tally to 2,86,579.

The spike in cases has pushed states to seek requisitions of isolation coaches from the Indian Railways to accommodate as beds for Covid positive patients and avoid overwhelming the health infrastructure. The Centre has warned that five most affected states — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh — going by current trends, are projected to fall short in terms of ICU beds and ventilators between June and August.

Globally, over 74,40,350 people have been infected with the virus and at least 4,18,516 have died. China has reported 16 new cases, including the first confirmed case in Beijing after 56 days. The United State, with over 2 lakh infections and 113,168 deaths, remains the worst-hit country.

Severe Acute Respiratory Infection, a condition in which a person faces breathing difficulties, has been seen to be the biggest risk for COVID-19 patients in Karnataka. The risk increases if the person also happens to be over 60 years of age, an analysis of COVID19 deaths in the state shows.

A very small proportion of the COVID-19 patients in the state had severe acute respiratory infection (SARI), just 75 out of the 6,275 positive cases till now. But amongst those who had, the mortality is very high.

Of the 72 COVID-19 patients who have died in the state so far, at least 30 were also suffering from SARI, which has been found to be the most common co-morbid condition amongst the deceased. More details here.

Three months after registering its first Covid-19 case on March 9, Maharashtra is close to touching the one lakh-mark with the overall count reaching 97,648 on Thursday. Of these, 22,771 cases had been reported in the last seven days.

On Tuesday, for the second day running, Maharashtra registered its highest single-day toll — 152 deaths — as well as the highest single-day cases — 3,607. While the total case load is just over 2,000 cases short of the one-lakh mark, in all, 3,590 people have scummed to the virus in the state.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Thursday held a coronavirus review meeting with the Maharashtra government and the state’s district officials, urging them to carry out vulnerability mapping in densely populated zones and put containment strategies in place.“Also, rise in case fatality rate should be looked into along with tests done per million population,” said Vardhan. Read more here

Insisting that India is not in the community transmission stage, the government on Thursday said the country’s first sero-survey on Covid-19 spread has found that lockdown and containment measures were successful in controlling a rapid rise of infections, but a large proportion of the population still remains susceptible.

“India is not in community transmission. We have to continue with our strategy of testing, tracing, tracking, quarantine and containment measures; we should not give up our guard on these,” Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director-General Balram Bhargava said while addressing a media briefing. More details here.