Thailand has seen a record 1,335 new coronavirus cases in a single day, bringing its total number of infections so far to 35,910.

This comes as the country struggles to contain a new wave of infections, with daily cases rising above 1,000 for the first time last week.

In response, authorities decided to close pubs, bars and other evening venues for two weeks in Bangkok and 40 other provinces.

EasyJet is ready to “ramp” up its services this summer, the budget airline has said.

The carrier hopes to operate flights at a fifth of 2019 capacity level between April and June, up from the 14 per cent seen between October and March.

As things stand, foreign travel will be allowed to resume from 17 May under the government’s plans.

Johan Lundgren, the company’s chief executive, said: “We continue to closely monitor the situation across Europe and, with vaccination programmes accelerating, most countries are planning to resume flying at scale in May.”

“EasyJet is ready to resume flying, prepared for the ramp-up and looking forward to being able to reunite people with their families or take them on leisure and business flights once again,” he added.

Mr Lundgren also called on ministers to reduce the cost of coronavirus tests which passengers will need to take before they travel.

Our travel correspondent Simon Calder reports:

People who were inactive in the two years prior to the pandemic were more likely to fall seriously ill with Covid-19 than those who met physical activity guidelines, research has found.

Those who were “consistently inactive” had a higher chance of being admitted to hospital, needing intensive care treatment or dying from the virus.

The study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, was based on the data of 50,000 adults who contracted Covid-19 between January and October last year.

Chiara Giordano has the details:

The fast spread of Covid-19 variants around the country could slow the route out of lockdown, a government scientific adviser has warned.

Professor Peter Openshaw said he and his peers were “very concerned” by the cluster of 44 cases of the South African variant found in London recently.

He told BBC2’s Newsnight: “A lot of we scientists are very concerned about what’s happening at the moment.

“I think we’re all just hoping that the staged reduction in lockdown is going to be ok. It is being done reasonably cautiously but I think this is not good news.

“If we get rapid spread of the South African or other more resistant variants, it may well be that we are going to have to put the reductions of lockdown into reverse.”

India has reported 184,372 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, the highest daily jump in cases.

The government also announced that deaths from Covid-19 had risen by 1,027 to 172,085.

This comes as hundreds of thousands of Hindu worshippers continue to gather by the Ganges to celebrate a weeks-long festival called the Kumbh Mela.

Sanjay Gunjyal, the man responsible for policing the festival, said 650,000 people had bathed in the river on Wednesday morning.

“People are being fined for not following social distancing in non crowded ghats (bathing areas), but it is very hard to fine people in the main ghats, which are very crowded,” he said.

The UK is expanding its ‘mix and match’ vaccine study to include the Moderna and Novavax vaccines, after only using Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs so far.

The research aims to look at the safety and efficacy of giving people two different vaccine doses.

Our science correspondent Sam Lovett reports:

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s rolling coronavirus coverage.