India holds college entrance exam amid COVID-19

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI, India (AA) - India on Tuesday held an entrance exam for engineering colleges across the country amid an increase in coronavirus cases.

There was a huge demand that the government postpone entrance exams for medical and engineering colleges in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and floods in several parts of the nation.

At least 2 million students in the country will participate in the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for engineering colleges and the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) exams for medical colleges. While the JEE is being held on Sept. 1-6, the exams for medical colleges will be held on September 13.

On Tuesday, thousands of candidates reached exam venues set up in different parts of the country.

Authorities have made face masks mandatory for students and social distancing is being enforced to prevent the virus spread.

At various places, the temperature of candidates were checked before entry to the exam venue.

In India, a high school graduate must sit for nationwide exams to be eligible for the chance to enter a medical or engineering college for higher studies.

India on Tuesday recorded nearly 70,000 fresh cases in the country, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country to more than 3.69 million. The country also recorded 819 new deaths over the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 65,288.

With the number of COVID-19 cases steadily increasing each day, India is approaching pandemic figures similar to those of Brazil, which is currently the world’s second worst-hit country.

Experts in the country say that India may even surpass the US, the hardest-hit country.