Dr V.K.Paul, head of a government task force tackling the outbreak, said there was no quick end in sight.

“Our population is still susceptible, this virus is present, we have contained it, but this fight will go on for months,” Paul told a news conference.

India took 64 days to cross the 1 lakh-mark from 100 cases, then in another fortnight it reached the grim milestone of two lakh cases. It has now become the fourth worst-hit nation by the pandemic with a caseload of 3,08,993, according to coronavirus statistics website Worldometer.

However, the Health Ministry said on Friday the doubling time of coronavirus cases has improved to 17.4 days from 15.4 days. And its data updated at 8 am on Saturday showed active cases at 1,45,779 and those who have recovered at 1,54,329; one patient has migrated.

“Thus, around 49.9 per cent patients have recovered so far,” a ministry official said.

The two-day virtual meet comes also against the backdrop of rising number of coronavirus cases in the country.Under “Unlock 1” several relaxations have been made for public and businesses to ensure that economic activities hit by the lockdown gather momentum.