Is coronavirus an airborne infection? Uncertainity surrounds this as the World Health Organisation admitted that there is evidence emerging of that possibility, after a group of scientists urged the global body to update its guidance on how the respiratory disease passes between people.

This is particularly worrying for the densely-populated metro cities in India, which have already emerged as hotspots of COVID-19.

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:

Update on India's COVID-19 numbers:

India has registered another record single-day jump of 26,506 COVID-19 cases. With this, the country's tally is now 7,93,802.

The death toll has climbed to 21,604 with 475 new fatalities, according to Union Health Ministry data.

According to government's data, there are currently 2,76,685 active cases in India.

West Bengal’s containment zones go into 7-day complete lockdown

West Bengal’s 434 containment zones went into strict seven-day lockdown on Thursday as the State recorded yet another highest single day spike with 1,088 cases of COVID -19 infection.

With 27 deaths in the past 24 hours, the overall toll rose to 854. Thirteen deaths were recorded in Kolkata, six in North 24 Parganas, three in Howrah, two in South 24 parganas and Darjeeling districts. The total number of cases in the State has touched 25,911 with 8,231 active cases.

As India crosses Russia in case count, the worrying trend in our doubling rates

On June 5, India overtook Russia in the number of cumulative cases. Among nations with a high case load, infections continue to double in less than 20 days only in India.

Our Deputy National Editor Srinivasan Ramani discusses this trend and other salient findings from India's COVID data in this episode of our The Hindu In Focus podcast.

Chennai accounts for less than a third of fresh cases in TN

Chennai accounted for less than a third of the 4,231 fresh COVID-19 cases recorded in Tamil Nadu on Thursday. While the total number of persons discharged after treatment went past 50,000 in the city, a 25-day-old baby with a congenital anomaly was among the 65 fatalities reported across the State.

Chennai continued to stay at the 1,200-mark for the third day running. With 1,216 fresh cases, the city’s overall count stood at 73,728.