Dr Saba Nabi is on the board of the Multicultural Council of Wagga and said the entire Indian community, herself included, have been personally touched by the unfolding tragedy.

"My husband lost his aunt, my dad lost his best friend, a family friend of many years," Dr Nabi said.

"I lost two of my friends, they were my uni friends when I was doing my Bachelors in India, I lost them yesterday. That was really shocking."

IN OTHER NEWS:

She said in India, people are scared to leave their homes after a five-day streak of soaring COVID numbers brought the country's total infections to 17.6 million, with 320,000 new cases recorded on Tuesday alone.

"In India everyone I know is living in a state of fear and anxiety," she said. "People are really scared to leave their homes, even if they have a medical appointment no one is going."

Amit Gupta is the General Secretary of the Wagga Indian Community, and is facing an impossible decision in the wake of the Prime Minister's announcement this afternoon that incoming flights from India would be cancelled until May 17.

"I was due to go home, I haven't been home for about three or four years and my father is really sick, he is rapidly deteriorating," Mr Gupta said.

"I need to go home as soon as possible but now I'm hearing this news and there's no certainty of coming back."

Mr Gupta is due to finish his studies in October, but said if he leaves now to see his father, he has no idea how or when he will be able to return to the life he has built in Wagga - to his friends, his job, his mortgage.

"I'm just juggling it all, day in day out," he said. "I can't sleep at night, last night I was up until 3am thinking about these decisions."

He acknowledged the Prime Minister's decision was the right one, but still a bitter pill to swallow.

"I'm happy we're protecting Australians but at the same time I'm not sure whether I'll be able to see my dad," Mr Gupta said. "I want to take care of him, so it's very hard for me."

Dr Nabi said she agreed with the Prime Minister's decision today from a medical standpoint, but on a personal level it is difficult.

"If my or my husband's phone rings in the odd hours, in the late night or something, we are really scared," she said. "We are very helpless, we can't do anything, we can't even travel."

"Most of the families in Wagga are suffering, there's a lot of anxiety about their family in India."

India's outbreak set a new record of daily COVID-19 infections last Thursday with 314,000 infections recorded, a number they have surpassed each day since. The death toll is now more than 197,000.

The Prime Minister today committed to an initial aid package of 500 ventilators, 1 million surgical masks, 500,000 P2 and N95 masks, 20,000 face shields, 100,000 goggles, and 100,000 pairs of gloves to be sent to the struggling nation.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: