The Latest: India may use train cars for virus patient 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. It underscores the continuing threat.

— Borders opened up across Europe after three months of closures that began so chaotically in March. But many restrictions persist, and it’s unclear how keen Europeans will be to travel this summer.

— 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...