Crowded villages show why coronavirus cases are surging in rural India

Emerging rural hotspots, where health care infrastructure is fragile and living conditions are already difficult, pose a challenge to the government

As India passes the grim milestone of two million virus cases and new hotspots emerge in villages, experts are worried infections will now rise exponentially in the world’s second-most populous country, overwhelming its under-prepared hinterland.

In the remote Valad village in the southern state of Kerala, 236 people have been found positive in the last two weeks. In Katapali village in eastern Odisha, nearly 200 people were infected and the area locked down for almost 50 days before the outbreak was controlled.

It’s still early days for Katapali, where hundreds more risk becoming infected. Many villagers who were mostly asymptomatic were