Covid-19 coronavirus: Families fear for loved ones in India as pandemic cuts through India

Amandeep Kaur's husband and 6-year-old daughter live in Punjab. Photo / Maryana Garcia

When Amandeep Kaur arrived in New Zealand on February 9, 2020, she thought it would only be a few weeks before her husband and daughter joined her.

Fourteen months later, Kaur still does not know when her family will be together again.

She moved from Punjab to the Bay of Plenty to study towards her Masters in Adult Education at Toi Ohomai in Tauranga just before the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded in New Zealand.

"I know they are taking good care of each other.

"But it's very tough. Everything depends on the border."

She is one of many in the Bay of Plenty Indian community for whom distance has taken on a new and painful meaning.

Multiple funeral pyres of those who died of COVID-19 burn at a ground that has been converted into a crematorium for coronavirus victims, in New Delhi, India. Photo / AP

While they are safe in New Zealand, their friends and family are being affected by escalating deaths and dwindling medical supplies and are surrounded by what Delhi's high court has described as a "tsunami" of Covid-19 cases.

As of April 26, India reported a week's average of 330,745 new cases per day. Scientists estimate close to half a billion people have been infected across the country.

For Indians on this side of the world, being separated from loved ones is harder than ever.

Kaur said she was having difficulty focusing on her studies.

Her husband, an engineer, and 6-year-old daughter Dilpreet are in Punjab. Dilpreet is attending school online.

Amandeep Kaur (left) with her daughter and husband in happier times. Photo / Maryana Garcia

"I talk to them every day but now I try to avoid video calls with my daughter because it is very hard for me to see her.

"She asks for me every day, asks me 'When are you coming back?'

"But I don't have answers for her."

Kaur said she finds it difficult to share her experience with others.

"I keep my feelings in my heart.

"When people see me they don't know. They think I'm doing okay.

"I work in childcare and when I see the little girls it hurts because they remind me of my daughter.

"But they are happy and playing. So I stay tough."

Monika Bansal came to New Zealand after being married for only one year. Her husband is working from home in Delhi. Photo / Supplied

Monika Bansal is in the same shoes. She is a finance administrator who came to Rotorua from Delhi in 2019, after being married for only a year. She thought her husband would be able to join her but she is still waiting.

Bansal's husband lives in Delhi in a three-generation household with seven other family members.

He has had to look for new employment twice in the past year and is currently working from home.

"I can see on the calls when he is struggling," Bansal said.

"We talk twice a day.

"But we cannot talk about how hard it is because it will make Mum and Dad cry.

"We cannot move on in our lives.

"We cannot think of the future until we are together. But we don't know when that will be."

For now Bansal says the couple is trying to stay strong for each other.

To help others who are struggling with the mental and emotional stress of being separated from family, Bansal has been running free yoga sessions for her community.

A relative of a patient who died of COVID-19, mourns outside a government COVID-19 hospital in Ahmedabad, India. Photo / AP

Meanwhile a local parish priest still receives daily updates from a community where he worked for nine years.

Father Thomas Thanniyanickal worked in a school in Nagpur before coming to New Zealand in September 2018.

The current parish priest of St Mary's Rotorua still receives daily updates from the people of Nagpur. Lately, it has almost always been bad news.

"The parents of many children I knew have lost their lives.

"This morning I got two more messages.

"One was about a very young priest from my community who has lost his life."

He believes the number of people affected by Covid-19 is "far more than we can count".

New Zealand's ban on travel from India lifted at midnight but new travel rules have come into force meaning only New Zealand citizens and their parents, partners and children will be able to come home from four high-risk countries - India, Brazil, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea.

Permanent New Zealand residents will not be able to travel directly here from those nations.