Covid-19 crisis appeared escalating on Monday with at least 11 new deaths including of six from Telangana who had attended a religious congregation in the national capital's Nizamuddin area earlier this month, while the government reported 227 fresh cases of infection nationwide -- the highest for a day.

While the Union Health Ministry maintained the deadly coronavirus was still in the local transmission stage in India and yet to move to the community transmission phase, the Supreme Court cautioned that fear and panic are becoming a bigger problem than the coronavirus.

The Union Health Ministry in its daily briefing said the Covid-19 is still in local transmission stage in India and it took 12 days for cases of infection to rise from 100 to 1,000 at a rate of increase slower than some of the developed countries.

Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health Lav Agarwal asserted there has been no community transmission as yet.

"Technically, Covid-19 is still in the local transmission stage in the country as there has been no community transmission as of now," Health ministry joint secretary Lav Aggarwal said, adding, "If there will be a community transmission we will want to covey it to the community through you (media) to increase the level of alertness and management for Covid-19 at the field level."

Earlier on Sunday, an SOP (standard operating procedure) issued by the Health Ministry had referred to the current phase of Covid-19 pandemic in India as "local transmission and limited community transmission".

Agarwal urged all to maintain social distancing, saying even one person's carelessness may lead to spread of coronavirus pandemic.

He attributed the slow pace of rise in cases in India to people's participation in strictly following the social distancing guidelines and the collective preemptive actions taken by the Centre in tandem with state governments.

its latest update, the Union Home Ministry said the death toll due to Covid-19 has risen to 38 and the number of total positive cases to 1,313 as of filing this story, up from 1,010 positive cases and 29 deaths as on Sunday evening. While there are more than 1,100 active cases, nearly 150 have been cured.

The Telangana government in the night said in a statement that six people from the state who attended a congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin have died due to coronavirus.

RELIGIOUS GATHERING IN DELHI'S NIZAMUDDIN SPARKS MASS COVID-19 SCARE

Officials said over 2,000 delegates, including from Indonesia and Malaysia, had attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin West from March 1-15. More than 200 people have been admitted to hospitals after showing symptoms of the disease and test results for many of them are expected on Tuesday.

The Delhi Police cordoned off the area after several people showed symptoms of coronavirus after taking part in a religious gathering a few days ago.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal later ordered FIR against the person who led the congregation.