AP News Digest 3:40 a.m.

Here are the AP's latest coverage plans, top stories and promotable content. All times EDT. For up-to-the minute information on AP's coverage, visit Coverage Plan at https://newsroom.ap.org.

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ONLY ON AP

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VIRUS OUTBREAK-FUNERAL HOMES — Funeral directors in New York City are taking unprecedented steps to address surging demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. One director let the AP into his funeral home in a hard-hit neighborhood where he had 185 bodies stacked up — more than triple normal capacity. SENT: 1,010 words, photos, video.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-SPAIN-INSIDE THE ICU — The bookshelves have been removed inside the library of the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in northeastern Spain to make room for up to 20 breathing machines and an array of medical equipment after the intensive care unit and other areas of the hospital flooded with COVID-19 patients. Due to the scarcity of full-body protective suits across Spain, medical personnel working in the makeshift ICU reuse masks, layer oversized surgical gowns with plastic aprons and run through an infinite number of latex gloves. By Renata Brito. SENT: 550 words, photos.

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TOP STORIES

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VIRUS OUTBREAK — Coronavirus deaths mount with alarming speed in Spain, Italy and New York, the most lethal hot spot in the United States, while the outbreak has thrown 10 million Americans out of work in just two weeks and had sickened more than a million people. By Michael R. Sisak, Lori Hinnant and Mark Sherman. SENT: 1,040 words, photos. With VIRUS-OUTBREAK-THE-LATEST.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-BRITAIN-HEALTH SERVICE — Britain’s National Health Service, the cornerstone of the nation’s post-war welfare state, may be stretched to the breaking point in the coming weeks. Hospitals are bracing for an expected tsunami of critically ill patients when the coronavirus pandemic reaches its peak across the United Kingdom. By Danica Kirka and Jo Kearney. SENT: 1,190 words, photos.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-BLOOD FROM THE RECOVERED — As more and more people survive the new coronavirus, hospitals want them to line up to donate some blood. Doctors want to use blood plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients to treat the sick, giving them a dose of the immune system antibodies that fight the virus. There’s no proof it works. But doctors around the world are dusting off the century-old treatment, most famously used during the 1918 flu pandemic. By Lauran Neergaard and Marshall Ritzel. SENT: 870 words, photos, video.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-TRUMP-PELOSI — President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have not spoken in five months at a time when the nation is battling its worst health crisis in a century. Now, there are worries the broken relationship could hinder the federal government’s ability to respond to the growing coronavirus pandemic. By Jonathan Lemire and Laurie Kellman. SENT: 1,100 words, photos.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-ISRAEL-ULTRA-ORTHODOX — Early this week, the streets of the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak were bustling with shoppers as ultra-Orthodox residents, obeying their religious leaders, ignored pleas to stay home in the face of the coronavirus threat. By Friday, Bnei Brak had become the country’ worst hot spot and now resembles a ghost town. By Ariel Schalit and Ilan Ben Zion. SENT: 840 words, photos. Also see MORE ON VIRUS OUTBREAK below.

Find more all-format coverage on the Virus Outbreak featured topic page in AP Newsroom.

ECONOMY-JOBS REPORT — After a record 113 straight months of hiring, the government’s monthly jobs report is expected to show that the American jobs machine came to a sudden halt in March as a result of the coronavirus. By Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber. SENT: 570 words, photos.

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