Amid the novel coronavirus outbreak in the country, the number of confirmed cases in India rose to 694 on Thursday. 88 new virus cases was reported in India today, the highest in a single day. Out of these cases,47 are foreign nationals, said the Union Health Ministry. There have been 16 deaths so far in the country. Currently, as per the orders of the government,India is in a complete lockdown for 21 days that began from 25 March.

The number of active cases are 633. Maharashtra is the mostaffected state with 124 positive cases, followed by Kerala with 119 cases (includingeight foreign nationals).

Andaman and Nicobar reports its first positive case today.Along with that, Manipur, Mizoram and Puducherry also have one positive caseseach.

In a press briefing toady afternoon, Lav Aggarwal, JointSecretary, Union Health Ministry said, "While the numbers of Covid-19cases are increasing, the rate at which they are increasing appears to berelatively stabilizing. However, this is only the initial trend."

The ministry also added that 43 fresh cases and four deathsrelated to coronavirus have been reported in the last 24 hours.

Out of these, 45 cases have been cured or discharged, theministry informed.

The ministry also spoke about community transmission phaseand said, "Community transmission phase will start if the community thegovernment don't work collectively and follow guidelines. But it would neverhappen in India if we follow social distancing and treatment properly."