India's COVID-19 Deaths Cross 100, 32 In A Day, Highest So Far: 10 Points

On Sunday night, millions switched off lights and lit diyas (earthen lamps) and candles, burst crackers, chanted slogans and shouted and cheered from their balconies, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to "challenge the darkness spread by the coronavirus crisis".

PM Modi spoke with two former Presidents and Prime Ministers and all senior opposition leaders, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Sources said the calls were part of an outreach on the lifting of the 21-day nationwide lockdown. The lockdown has been criticised by the opposition who had not been consulted on the matter.

The Health Ministry on Sunday said that the coronavirus cases in India are doubling every 4.1 days and that the rate could have been slower (at 7.1 days) if the Delhi mosque event - which was attended by thousands from India and abroad - hadn't taken place.

Nearly a third of all confirmed coronavirus cases in India have been linked to the Tablighi Jamaat, the Health Ministry said on Saturday, adding that these cases had spread across at least 17 states and union territories. The religious event at a 100-year-old mosque complex in south Delhi has been declared a coronavirus hotspot by the government, with 22,000 who were either at the event or came in contact with Jamaat members quarantined. 

Cases linked to the Tablighi Jamaat have been reported from Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Karnataka, Andaman and Nicobar, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh and Jharkhand.

Today is Day 14 of the 21-day lockdown, declared by PM Modi, to control the spread of the virus.

All domestic and international commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this time period. The government is likely to allow domestic and international flight operations in a staggered manner post the 21-day lockdown period which is expected to end on April 14, news agency PTI qupted officials as saying on Sunday. Air Deccan became the latest casualty of the aviation crisis as it announced indefinite suspension of flight operations and asked all employees to go on sabbatical without pay.

The government has released details of an aggressive plan to counter the spread of the COVID-19 virus, including options to declare buffer zones and seal off high-risk areas for as long as a month. The strategy is meant to contain the highly contagious virus within a defined geographical area by early detection of cases and breaking the chain of transmission. The containment will be eased if no new cases are reported from the area for at least four weeks after the last confirmed test.

Worldwide, 1.2 million people have been infected and nearly 66,000 killed.

US President Donald Trump spoke to PM Modi on Saturday, asking for India to allow export of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine tablets to treat COVID-19 patients. India had halted sale of this drug, and its variations. As of Sunday, the US reported over three lakh cases and 8,000 deaths.