The central government has decided to postpone the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Postgraduate) (NEET-PG), which was scheduled to be held on 18 April, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan tweeted on Thursday, 15 April, amid the massive surge in COVID-19 cases.
"Decision has been taken keeping wellbeing of our young medical students in mind," Vardhan tweeted.
Earlier on Thursday, a group of student doctors had moved the top court seeking postponement of the NEET-PG medicinal entrance exams. The matter was, thereby, scheduled to be heard on Friday.
The petitioners had said that forcing doctors who treat COVID-19 patients to attend a physical exam would put thousands of lives at risk.
Several medical aspirants had also taken to Twitter to urge the NBE to postpone the exam amid the spike in COVID-19 cases, seeking for the exam to be held after a few weeks, once the COVID peak has been crossed.
The decision comes after the CBSE Class 10 Board exams were cancelled, while Board exams for Class 12 were postponed on Wednesday. Several state boards have also cancelled or postponed their respective examinations in light of the COVID surge.
India reported 2,00,739 fresh COVID-19 cases on Thursday in the biggest one-day spike so far, taking the country’s total to 1,40,74,564, while the death toll rose by 1,038 to 1,73,123.
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