A total of 647 people linked to the Tablighi Jamaat event have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 2 days in India. (Photo: PTI)

India on Friday reported its single-largest daily spike in Covid-19 cases with more than 500 people testing positive for the novel coronavirus across the country, taking the total tally to over 2,600.

With Maharashtra, Telangana, and Delhi reporting several new cases of the deadly virus infection, government officials said the numbers have risen in last few days mostly due to the Tablighi Jamaat event that took place in the national capital earlier in March and which was attended by thousands of its followers.

Delhi reported 93 cases in the last 24 hours out of which 77 were Jamaat event attendees, Maharashtra reported a total of 67 cases of which three had attended the said event, Telangana reported 75 cases in the last 24 hours and all were attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat event. Similarly, Kerala reported 9 cases in the last 24 hours and seven out of these had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event.

The health ministry, during its routine briefing on Covid-19, said that as many as 647 coronavirus positive cases, linked to the Tablighi Jamaat event, were found in 14 states in the last two days.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his video conference address to the nation, asked Indians under lockdown to switch off all lights at home at 9 pm Sunday (April 5) and light candles or diyas -- or use the flashlights on their mobile phones -- to mark the national fight against the coronavirus outbreak.

Several opposition leaders on Friday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's brief video address to the nation and asked him to focus on helping the poor amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.

Here's all that has happened in the last 24 hours in India as the country continues to witness record spike in cases:

India reports record spike in Covid-19 cases:

India reported a record 575 cases on Friday, the highest in a day so far, with many of the new patients being linked to the Tablighi Jamaat event that took place in Delhi's Nizamuddin area earlier in March and was attended by thousands of people from all across the country.

According to the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) as on 9 pm on Friday, India has a total 2,653 confirmed positive Covid-19 cases. Meanwhile, the death toll in the country reached 71.

The number of Covid-19 cases in Delhi rose to 386 even as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked people not to panic saying there is no community spread of the virus. In Maharashtra, 67 tested positive for coronavirus on Friday, taking the number of Covid-19 cases in the state to 490, according to state's health department.

PTI photo.

A day after a marginal dip, the Covid-19 cases in Tamil Nadu touched the three-figure mark again on Friday with 102 people, almost all returnees from Tablighi Jamat meet in Delhi, testing positive, taking the tally in the state to 411. Kerala, on the other hand, reported nine new cases of coronavirus on Friday, with seven from the worst affected Kasaragod district, taking the total number of people under treatment in the state to 251.

After taali bajao, PM Modi says diya jalao

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his video address to the nation on Friday morning, asked Indians under lockdown to switch off all lights at home at 9 pm Sunday (April 5) and light candles or diyas -- or use the flashlights on their mobile phones -- to mark the national fight against the coronavirus outbreak.

PM Modi asked his compatriots to do this for nine minutes.

"At that time, if you have turned off all the lights of your homes, and each one of us in all directions has lit a diya, we will experience the superpower of light, clearly illuminating the common purpose we are all fighting for," he said.

Opposition leaders slam PM Modi's address, ask him to focus on real issues

Several opposition leaders criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's brief video address to the nation, in which he asked people to light candles, torches and flashlights at 9 pm on Sunday, and asked him to focus on helping the poor amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.

Senior Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor said PM Modi's speech offered no vision for the future on how to ease people's pain and financial anxieties.

"Listened to the Pradhan Showman. Nothing about how to ease people's pain, their burdens, their financial anxieties," Tharoor said.

Listened to the Pradhan Showman. Nothing about how to ease people’s pain, their burdens, their financial anxieties. No vision of the future or sharing the issues he is weighing in deciding about the post-lockdown. Just a feel-good moment curated by India’s Photo-Op PrimeMinister! April 3, 2020

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra also shared a similar tone in her comment on PM's speech on Twitter.

"Turn out lights and come on balconies?" she asked, and urged PM Modi to announce a fiscal package amounting to 8-10 per cent of India's GDP to help fight the novel coronavirus crisis.

Turn out lights & come on balconies?



GET REAL MR. MODI!



Give India fiscal pkg worth 8-10pc of GDP



Ensure immediate wages to construction & other labour during lockdown- laws exist permitting this



Stop gagging real press in name of curbing fake news Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 3, 2020

647 Tablighi Jamaat linked Covid-19 cases reported in India in last 2 days

As many as 647 Covid-19 cases found in 14 states in the last two days are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.

The ministry's Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal also said that our of the 12 deaths reported in the last 24 hours some were linked to the congregation, which took place early last month in the national capital's West Nizamuddin area.

So far there have been 2,301 cases of Covid-19 in India and 56 deaths out of which 12 were reported since Thursday, he said, adding that there has been a rise of 336 cases since Thursday.

Members of Muslim community who attended Delhi's Tablighi Jamaat event being taken to a quarantine facility. (Photo: PTI)

An ICMR official said over 8,000 samples were tested on Thursday for Covid-19, the highest number of samples tested in a day till now.

4 men detained in Indore under NSA for attack on health workers

Four men were on Friday detained under the National Security Act (NSA) for the alleged attack on health workers in Indore.

The Indore district administration invoked the NSA against four men involved in the alleged attack on health workers in the city.

A five-member team from the state health department had gone to Taatpatti Bakhal area on Wednesday to quarantine relatives and acquaintances of a Covid-19 patient, when an unruly mob attacked them with stones, injuring two women doctors.

The police arrested seven persons for the alleged attack on Thursday and the district administration has slapped the NSA on four of them, an official said.

As sporadic attacks on doctors, social workers and police personnel come to light in the country's battle against the coronavirus outbreak, the Uttar Pradesh government also said the NSA would be slapped on those who assault policemen enforcing the 21-day national lockdown which entered the 10th day on Friday.

Focus shifts to rapid Covid-19 tests

Ramping up efforts to contain the Covid-19 outbreak, authorities on Friday announced exclusive isolation wards and initiated rapid tests in areas identified as hotspots of the infection while a record of more than 8,000 samples were tested in 24 hours.

ICMR in its interim advisory recommended the use of the rapid antibody test in the country's coronavirus hotspots. The decision for the recommendation was taken at an emergency meeting of the National Task Force, formed to deal with the health crisis, held on Thursday.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan visits a hospital in Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

"Population in hotspot areas may be tested using rapid antibody test. Antibody positives to be confirmed by RT-PCR (reverse transcription-PCR) using throat/nasal swab, and antibody negatives to be quarantined at home," the ICMR said in its interim advisory.

Presently labs use PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests to detect coronavirus from samples of throat or nasal swab of people with symptoms or high-risk individuals who might have come in contact with positive patients.

What's happening around the world:

Global coronavirus cases surpass one million, death toll tops 52,000

Global coronavirus cases surpassed 1 million on Thursday with more than 52,000 deaths as the pandemic further exploded in the United States and the death toll climbed in Spain and Italy, according to a Reuters tally of official data.

Italy had the most deaths, more than 13,900, followed by Spain. The United States had the most confirmed cases of any country, more than 240,000, the data showed.

Since the virus was first recorded in China late last year, the pandemic has spread around the world, prompting governments to close businesses, ground airlines and order hundreds of millions of people to stay at home to try to slow the contagion.

UK PM Boris Johnson to continue Covid-19 self-isolation due to fever

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday said that he will have to stay in extended self-isolation as he gave an update on his health via social media on Friday, which should have marked the end of the stipulated seven-day self-isolation period after his Covid-19 diagnosis last week.

UK PM Boris Johnson. (Photo: Reuters)

Johnson, 55, said he still has a temperature, one of the symptoms associated with coronavirus, and would, therefore, have to stay in isolation for longer.

"Although I'm feeling better and I've done my seven days of isolation, alas I still have one of the symptoms, a minor symptom.

"I still have a temperature and so, in accordance with the government advice, I must continue my self-isolation until that symptom itself goes," Johnson said in a new video message.

Iran parliament speaker, Israeli health minister test positive for coronavirus

Iran Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani tested positive for coronavirus, while in Israel, several top officials entered quarantine when the Health Minister Yaakov Litzman tested positive.

Iran Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani. (Photo: AP)

The Middle East has confirmed over 82,000 cases of the virus and over 3,600 deaths, most of them in Iran. Iran's Health Ministry said Thursday that the new coronavirus killed another 124 people, pushing the country's death toll to 3,160.