Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat on Friday expressed gratitude to all professionals fighting coronavirus at the forefront including doctors, nurses, sanitation workers, police, home guards, delivery boys and media. "We are expressing our gratitude to all 'corona warriors' who are working hard to keep us safe," General Bipin Rawat also said. The Air Force will conduct a flypast on Sunday to salute Corona warriors, General Bipin Rawat further said "Indian Air Force will conduct flypast from Srinagar to Trivandrum and another one starting from Dibrugarh in Assam to Kutch in Gujarat. It'll include both transport & fighter aircraft," General Bipin Rawat stated.

Earlier, the Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and three service chiefs addressed a joint press conference on Friday. The three serving military chiefs include Chief of the Indian Army General MM Naravane, Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh, and IAF chief RKS Bhadauria.

On Thursday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had chaired a meeting with the top military brass on coronavirus issue. In April, General Bipin Rawat had said that the defence services "must operate beyond the mandate to support the people and government in whatever way we can." The defence services emerged successful in combating coronavirus owing to its culture of 'discipline and patience', he had also said.

The government last month announced a freeze on additional increments of dearness allowance and dearness relief for 18 months for all central government employees, including serving military personnel and veterans. Meanwhile, India recorded 1,993 coronavirus cases in 24 hours, the highest 1-day jump, taking the total tally of confirmed cases to 35,043 on Friday, according to the latest update by the Union Health Ministry. These cases include 25,007 active cases, 8,888 cured or discharged, 1 migrated and 1,147 deaths.