The Latest: India may use train carriages for virus beds

NEW DELHI — India’s home minister has offered 500 railway carriages for use as makeshift coronavirus hospital wards as the capital New Delhi struggles to contain a spike in cases.

Amit Shah, India’s second-most powerful politician after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was set to convene a meeting Monday with all major political parties represented on the deteriorating situation in the capital.

Delhi has about 9,000 beds dedicated to COVID-19 patients among public and private hospitals, but a state government panel of experts has said that Delhi will need at least 15,000 beds by the end of June.

India’s health ministry reported a jump of more than 11,000 new coronavirus infections nationwide for a third consecutive day, taking the total caseload to more than 332,000, including 9,520 deaths.

India is the fourth hardest-hit country by the pandemic in the world after the U.S., Russia and Brazil.

___

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— Beijing is reinstating virus controls as an outbreak connected to a food market grows

— Educators go sleuthing to ensure students thrown off track during distance learning don't fall further behind

— An ambulance driver 's daily rush to save lives is exhausting, never-ending task in hard-hit Mumbai, India

— A cleric in Peru fills his church with 5,000 portraits of pandemic victims, says health system based on egotism rather than mercy

___

Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

___

HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

ISLAMABAD __ Pakistan’s number of infected people neared 145,000 Monday as leaders warned the coronavirus could sweep through the population.

They say the number of...