India's invisible catastrophe: fears over spread of Covid-19 into poor rural areas

Country is entering a dangerous new phase of rising infections in small towns and villages with limited access to healthcare

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Where better to seek sanctuary from a virus roaring through a crowded metropolis than a remote mountainside with views of the Himalayas?

This was the reasoning that prompted Lalit Upreti, 34, to leave the Indian capital, Delhi, where he works as a cook, two months ago to return to his hamlet Khankari in Uttarakhand, near the country's border with Nepal. Here, he thought, his family would be safe.