Coronavirus Spreading In India

NEW DELHI (AP) – For weeks India has watched as the new virus spread in neighboring China and elsewhere while its own caseload remained static. But with the disease now spreading inside the country of 1.4 billion, authorities are scrambling to ready the understaffed medical system for a potential surge in patients. Schools have been closed, exports of key pharmaceutical ingredients have been halted, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced he will not join public celebrations of Holi, the Hindu springtime holiday in which crowds of people douse one another with colored water and paint.