The Terrible Toll of Indiaâs Second COVID-19 Wave After decades of refusing to invest in health care, the Indian government has left many rural communities with few options to control the virusâs spread. Pushpa Toraskar, whose mother-in-law was hospitalized with COVID-19 in April 2021, was told she had to pay a $2,070 hospital bill within twenty-four hours. A few hours later, she got another call from the hospital, informing her that her mother-in-law, Parvati, had died from the virus. âWe couldnât claim the body till the dues were cleared,â Toraskar told me, teary-eyed. As of June 3, India had reported more than twenty-eight million COVID-19 cases and 338,013 deathsânumbers that understate the enormous level of loss that has affected millions of people and entire communities.Â