India to use 20,000 train cars as coronavirus isolation centres

India has begun converting 20,000 railway carriages into isolation wards to deal with an expected surge in coronavirus cases.

Each of the carriages will be converted into medical facilities containing 16 beds each, meaning a total of 320,000 people can be cared for. The state-run Indian Railways said that work on modifying an initial 5,000 carriages has already begun. India is one week into a massive nationwide lockdown with 1.3 billion people told to stay home as the country attempts to stifle the spread of the coronavirus. But there has been a spike in new cases this week, with the country confirming 1,590 infections and 45 deaths, according to data gathered by Johns Hopkins University.

Also of concern is the patchwork Indian healthcare system, which lacks enough trained staff and medical equipment such as ventilators to handle a large outbreak of coronavirus. India has just eight doctors per 10,000 people, compared to 26 in the U.S., 41 in Italy, and 71 in South Korea.