Global concern grows as COVID-19 variant ravages rural India

A man stands next to the body of his wife, who died due to breathing difficulties, inside an emergency ward of a government-run hospital, amidst the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh, India, May 11, 2021. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India's coronavirus death toll crossed 250,000 on Wednesday in the deadliest 24 hours since the pandemic began, as the disease rampaged through the countryside, leaving families to weep over the dead in rural hospitals or camp in wards to tend the sick.

The second wave erupted in February, inundating hospitals and medical staff, as well as crematoriums and mortuaries.