24,942 Coronavirus Cases In India; 779 Deaths, 56 In 24 Hours: 10 Points

In a huge relief to shopkeepers and buyers across the country, the government has told the states and union territories to allow shops to open in residential areas with conditions, except those in the malls. The exemptions are not allowed in containment zones and hotspots. Masks, gloves and adherence to social distancing norms will be mandatory, the government has said, adding that only 50 per cent of the staff will be allowed in these shops.

India on Friday registered 1,752 new coronavirus cases, its biggest single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic. The doubling rate of coronavirus cases has improved to 10 days, from 7.5 days reported earlier this week, the centre said on Friday, suggesting that the lockdown enforced since last month to check the spread of the highly contagious disease is a success.

No new cases have been reported in 80 districts in the last 14 days, the government said on Friday. "Till date, there are 80 districts in the country that have reported no new cases in the last 14 days. The chain of transmission is being broken by the collective efforts of people and administration. We should see that the green zone districts maintain the status of no new cases and also, new districts get added into this category," senior health ministry official Lav Aggarwal said in his daily press briefing.

Maharashtra - the state with the highest number of COVID-19 cases across India - is also the first in the the country to test more than one lakh laboratory samples for COVID-19. The state has tested 1,02,189 laboratory samples so far, of which 94,485 samples were negative. The state has 6,817 COVID-19 patients and has recorded 301 deaths so far.

A sharp drop was recorded on Friday in new cases reported from Mumbai's Dharavi, Asia's largest slum. Six new cases, including one death, were reported from the area - a sharp decline from the 25 new cases reported on Thursday. Dharavi, with a total area of 2.1 sq km, is home to around 8 lakh people who live in tiny tenements. Mumbai has registered 4,447 COVID-19 positive cases and has seen 178 deaths. Almost all parts of the city have COVID-19 cases but the biggest clusters seem to be the prime location of the Worli-Prabhadevi belt which is in the South ward which has 534 cases and the Dharavi slum which has 228 cases.

Plasma therapy trials - which involve the transfusion of plasma from a convalescent coronavirus patient to a critical patient - have produced encouraging results in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday. Karnataka and Maharashtra too are set to use the plasma therapy for COVID-19 patients.

On Friday, for the first time, Bengal officially linked 57 deaths to coronavirus. The state government revealed that according to its death audit committee, 57 COVID-19 patients had died, but asserted that 39 of these were due to co-morbidities.

Central teams to asses alleged coronavirus lockdown violations and other gaps in the fight to control the contagion will be sent to three more states, Gujarat, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, the government said on Friday, amid a row with Bengal. The situation is "especially serious" in major hotspot districts or emerging hotspots like Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat, Thane in Maharashtra, Hyderabad in Telangana and Chennai in Tamil Nadu, the Union Home Ministry said in tweets.

Tamil Nadu has declared an intense lockdown in five cities, including state capital Chennai, from Sunday to contain the spread of COVID-19. A four-day intense shutdown has been declared in Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore from Sunday 6 am, which will continue till 9 pm on Wednesday. In Tirupur and Salem, restrictions will be intensified for three days, starting 6 am on Sunday till 9 pm on Tuesday, Mr Palaniswami said.

Worldwide, over 28 lakh people have contracted the infection so far, more than 1.9 lakh have died. In the United States - the epicentre of the pandemic - the number of deaths have doubled to 50,000 in 10 days.