As India crossed 3 lakh-mark with the highest single-day spike of 11,458 new Coronavirus cases, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday that the doubling time of COVID-19 cases in the country has improved to 17.4 days currently from 15.4 days a couple of weeks ago, even as the country for the first time recorded over 10,000 new instances of the infection in a single day.

At the time the lockdown was imposed on March 25, the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases was 3.4 days, said the Health Ministry.

The ministry said that the cabinet secretary held a meeting with the chief secretaries, health and urban development secretaries of all states through video conferencing and they were asked to also pay special attention to the emerging epicentres of COVID-19 cases and undertake stringent containment measures to check the contagion, which has shown a sudden spurt.

“The doubling rate/time continues to improve and has increased from 3.4 days at the beginning of lockdown to 17.4 days currently,” the ministry said.

The states have been advised by the cabinet secretary to focus on containment, testing and tracing, upgrading health infrastructure, clinical management and community engagement for effective management of Coronavirus pandemic.

For early identification of cases it was emphasised to undertaking active house-to-house surveillance in containment zones citing that it was critical for early identification of cases.

The states were also requested to expedite upgradation of hospital infrastructure to manage COVID-19 cases as per projections while ensuring sufficient logistics, and trained human resources, during the meeting.

Timely referrals, based on symptoms and improving clinical practices with the help of Centres of Excellence in collaboration with AIIMS, Delhi, was also stressed at the meeting.

“States were requested to undertake extensive community outreach to encourage social distancing and promotion of COVID-19 appropriate behaviour in the community at all times,” the Health Ministry said.

The total coronavirus tally of the country stands at 3,08,993. As many as 386 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours taking the total number of fatalities to 8,884, according to the Ministry of Health. Of the total cases, 1,45,779 are active cases and 1,54,330 people have been cured.

India’s recovery rate is now 49.9 per cent. The recoveries continue to be higher than active cases of novel coronavirus. More new recoveries than new active cases reported in Bihar, Chhattishgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Odisha, Telangana and Uttarakhand.