India crosses grim milestone of registering 3 lakh COVID-19 cases

Amid the observance of 'Unlock 1.0' in India, the Asian country, with a population of 1.3 billion people, registered 2,903 cases during the later part of the day to reach a tally of 3,04,019 from 2,97,535.

Earlier in the day, India left behind the UK in the global arena with 10,956 fresh cases between Thursday and Friday mornings.

The UK, which is now placed at fifth position in the list of worst-affected countries worldwide, has 2,94,401 cases so far, according to John Hopkins University's Coronavirus live map.

India with its poor health facilities is preceded by the United States, Brazil and Russia.

The death toll in India rose to 8,498 with a record single-day jump of 396 fatalities.

The western state of Maharashtra continues to be the most-affected with 1,01,141 cases.

Maharashtra is followed by Tamil Nadu with 40,698 and Delhi with 34,687 cases.

The situation has turned grim at a time when the government had eased restrictions and limited the lockdown to only containment zones till June 30 in an attempt to boost the economy.

As per various analyses, the pandemic will have a bearing effect on the country's economy pushing it to witness an increase in the number of people reeling under extreme poverty condition.

Rate of recovery high in India:

However, providing a ray of hope, the Union Health Ministry on Friday announced that the recovery rate in India continues to improve and is currently at 49.47% with 1,47,194 patients cured till Friday.

"Doubling time improves to 17.4 days from 3.4 days at the beginning of #Lockdown," the Health Ministry said in a tweet.

SC slams states over poor COVID-19 situation handling:

The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the Delhi government over the "horrendous, horrific and pathetic" COVID-19 situation in the national capital besides terming the condition in three other states- Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal- as "grim."

Slamming the Delhi government over its handling of the infected patients, the Supreme Court said as quoted by NDTV, "COVID-19 patients are treated worse than animals. In one case, a body was found in the garbage. Patients are dying and nobody is there to even attend to them."

It added, "The situation in Delhi is horrendous, horrific and pathetic. (There is a) very sorry state of affairs in its hospitals that aren't giving due care and concern to the bodies. Patients' families aren't even informed about deaths. Families haven't been able to attend the last rites too in some cases."

The court has also sought a response from Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal as well as the central government taking note of the reports of improper handling of patients and the disposal of the deceased in the country.

India not in community transmission stage: ICMR

Despite the steady rise in Covid-19 cases, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Thursday claimed India was not in the community transmission stage.

ICMR DG Prof. Balram Bhargava had told a press briefing here, "India is not in community transmission. We have to continue with our strategy of testing, tracing, tracking, quarantine and containment measures and we should not give up our guard on these."

The ICMR had also claimed India's mortality rate per lakh population is among the lowest in the world.