Coronavirus races through rural India, infections and deaths hit another grim record

The country reported a record 412,262 new Covid-19 cases and 3,980 deaths in the past 24 hours

In some villages in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, ‘there are deaths in almost every second house’, a volunteer says

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Relatives stand near the funeral pyre of their loved one who died due to Covid-19 at a cremation ground in Allahabad. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:09pm, 6 May 2021Updated: 10:36pm, 6 May 2021

Hopes that India’s deadly second wave of Covid-19 was about to peak were swept away on Thursday as it posted record daily infections and deaths and as the virus spread from cities to villages across the world’s second-most populous nation.

India reported a record 412,262 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours and a record 3,980 deaths. Covid-19 infections have now surged past 21 million, with a total death toll of 230,168, health ministry data showed.

Government modelling had forecast a peak in second wave infections by Wednesday.

“This temporarily halts speculations of a peak,” Rijo M John, a professor at the Indian Institute of Management in the southern state of Kerala, said on Twitter.

With hospitals scrabbling for beds and oxygen in response to the surge in infections, the World Health Organization said in a weekly report that India accounted for nearly half the coronavirus cases reported worldwide last week and a quarter of the deaths.

India has 3.45 million active cases. Medical experts say India’s actual figures could be five to 10 times the official tallies.