1. The Centre on Thursday said all centrally-protected monuments, museums and sites under the Archaeological Survey of India will remain closed till May 15.
  2. India reported 2,00,739 new coronavirus cases in a day on Thursday. This is the highest ever rise in infections since the pandemic broke out in January 2020.The country now has 1,40,74,564 total cases. With 1,038 deaths, the toll has risen to 1,73,123. As many as 1,24,29,564 people have recovered from the infection.  
  3. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday announced a weekend curfew in the city to break the transmission chain of Covid-19. This will be in effect from 10 pm on Friday to 6 am on Monday. The Aam Aadmi Party chief urged people not to panic and said entertainment activities over the weekend need to be avoided.    
  4. The Centre on Thursday postponed the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (post graduate) or NEET-PG medical exam amid the surge in coronavirus cases in the country. The exam was scheduled for April 18 and nearly 1.7 lakh medical aspirants were going to appear for it.  
  5. The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday extended night curfew timings in capital Lucknow, Noida and several other cities that have been recording a surge in Covid-19 cases. Apart from Lucknow and Noida, the state government had last week enforced night curfew in Prayagraj, Varanasi, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Meerut and Gorakhpur districts. Earlier, the curfew timings were 10 pm to 5 am. Now, the curfew will last from 8 pm to 7 am.  
  6. The Haryana government on Thursday cancelled the Class 10 board exams which were to be conducted by the state board of school education and decided to postpone the exams of Class 12 amid the coronavirus crisis, reported News18.   
  7. The Delhi High Court on Thursday permitted 50 people to offer prayers at the Nizamuddin Markaz mosque five times a day during Ramzan, subject to coronavirus-related safety guidelines. The building has been locked since March 31 last year, when it was vacated following a congregation by religious group Tablighi Jamaat in the initial days of the pandemic.  
  8. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare the coronavirus pandemic a natural calamity so that the State Disaster Response Fund can be used to provide benefits to those affected.  
  9. The double mutant type of the coronavirus detected in India can be considered a “variant of concern”, the country’s Principal Scientific Adviser K VijayRaghavan told the Hindustan Times in an interview on Wednesday. “It’s reasonable to say that the variant is of concern because it has been found in a significant number of people,” VijayRaghavan said. He also said that the physiological effect of the mutation was of significance, adding that Indian scientists were carrying out further tests to determine its exact biological consequences.  
  10. Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 13.80 crore people and killed 29,71,181 since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to the Johns Hopkins University. More than 7.81 crore people have recovered from the infection.