Over four months after the first coronavirus case was detected in India, the case count in India stands at 3.95 lakh, with a death toll of over 12,900.

As scientists worldwide try to better understand the origins and nature of the pandemic, traces of the virus has been found in wastewater collected from Italy's Milan and Turin in December 2019. This suggests that COVID-19 was already circulating in northern Italy before China reported the first cases.

Here is a list of State Helpline numbers. You can track coronavirus cases, deaths and testing rates at the national and State levels here.

Here are the latest updates:

Quick update on the COVID-19 numbers:

India registers highest single-day spike of 14,516 COVID-19 cases. With this, India's total tally is now 3,95,048 cases, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The death toll is now 12,948 after 375 new fatalities in the past 24 hours.

How did the coronavirus situation in Delhi escalate?

For the past few days, Delhiites have been waking up to headlines of 'record increase' in COVID-19 cases in the capital. At the time of this update, the case count stands at 53,116, with as many as 2,035 dead.

From having an initial grip over the situation, the Aam Aadmi Party government is now fighting several accusations — of delayed decision-making, poor planning, hiding data on the dead, disappearing numbers, and poor testing — even as it grapples with the surging cases. Further, unlike Mumbai, Delhi is yet to cap the charges for treatment of COVID-19 in private hospitals.

How did things get this bad? In Ground Zero, Delhi reporter Nikhil M. Babu explores how the government frittered away an opportunity to ramp up healthcare facilities during the lockdown period.

Centre asks States to strictly follow home-isolation guidelines to curb COVID-19 spread

The Health Ministry has written to the States, asking them to follow guidelines for effective home isolation to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among family members and neighbours, especially in congested living conditions.

In its letter on Friday, the Ministry said that as per the guidelines, very mild and pre-symptomatic COVID-19 patients can opt for home isolation provided the patient has a room to himself/herself with toilet facility and has an adult attendant/caregiver.

Done correctly, home isolation can help reduce the strain on hospital infrastructure. Here are some pointers to keep in mind when you undergo it.

The challenges behind effective contact tracing

The Health Ministry has stressed that contact tracing is a critical component to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. This continues to be a challenge in urban cities, many of which have emerged as major hotspots.

 

In Chennai, for instance, other than factors like population density and incomplete information, officials faced a unique problem — many residents seem to not know their neighbours.