The second wave has made deep inroads into smaller towns and remote villages in Uttar Pradesh. Sudhir Singh Pappu, chief of Chiraigaon block, a cluster of 110 villages with a population of 230,000 on the outskirts of Varanasi, told the BBC that each village had reported five to 10 deaths in recent days. In some villages, he said, the toll was as high as 15 to 30. "There is no hospital in the block, no oxygen and no medicines," he said. "There's no space in government hospitals, private hospitals ask for a deposit of 200,000 rupees (£1,953; $2,705) to 500,000 rupees even before they look at a patient. We have nowhere to go." Kamal Kant Pandey, a resident of Aidhe village, said he thought the situation in his village was worse than in the city. "If you tested everyone in my village of 2,700 people, at least half would be positive. So many people have cough, fever, pain in the lower back, weakness, loss of taste and smell," he said. Deaths in Aidhe were not making it onto the official database because "there's no testing here", said Mr Pandey, who was himself sick with the virus but made a full recovery.