Engineering entrance exam JEE-Mains scheduled from May 24 to 28 has been postponed in view of the COVID-19 situation, according to the Ministry of Education's National Testing Agency (NTA).

Earlier, the April edition of the exam was postponed following an exponential rise in coronavirus cases.

"The JEE-Mains scheduled from May 24 to 28 are being postponed in view of the current pandemic situation," the NTA said in an order.

The rescheduling of the April and May sessions will be done subsequently and "the registration for the May session will also be announced at a later stage", it said.

From this year, the exam is being conducted four times a year to offer flexibility to students and a chance to improve their scores.

While the first phase was conducted in February followed by the second phase in March. The next phases were scheduled to be held in April and May.

Over 6.2 lakh candidates appeared in the first session while 5.5 lakh candidates appeared in the second session of the exam.

As per the policy, after the February, March, April and May sessions of JEE(Main)-2021, the ranks of candidates will be released taking into consideration the best of their four scores.

India's total tally of COVID-19 cases crossed the 2-crore mark with over 50 lakh infections being added in just 15 days.

The total tally of coronavirus cases in the country mounted to 2,02,82,833 with 3,57,229 new infections being reported in a day, while the death toll increased to 2,22,408 with 3,449 new fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.