Ramaswami: THE relaxation of restrictions from May 4 onwards, even as the national lockdown continues till May 17, as was widely anticipated, led to a record peaking of the Covid positive cases and consequent deaths. On May 5, India recorded 3875 new cases in a single day spike, 2.5 times higher than the daily average increase over the past week. The highest number of deaths recorded are between May 4/5 - 194. This is the highest single day death toll recorded since the outbreak of the pandemic.