Twenty-five people died in the past one week at village Itarra in Ghatampur tehsil of Kanpur district after developing flu-like symptoms, residents say. Patara, Paras, Bhadras and Jahangirabad — all villages in Ghatampur — have each lost at least 10 people to suspected Covid around the same period. These are small villages, each with a population between 500 and 1,000. None of them had witnessed a single Covid death during the outbreak’s first wave last year, residents told The Telegraph. But the second wave seems to be playing havoc in rural Uttar Pradesh although the state government seems to have no figures, especially the death toll, which earned it a rap from Allahabad High Court on Tuesday.