The country has been recording more than 2000 deaths and 350,000 new cases per day as it becomes the epicentre for the global pandemic.
Hard-hit Delhi has been at the centre of devastating scenes where hospitals have run out of oxygen for dying patients.
And the more than 400 Dunedin residents of Malayalee heritage in the city are watching the pandemic unfold, hopeful their home state of Kerala does not soon become overrun.
Dunedin nurse Suraj Jain said his aunt and uncle were infected in the first wave when the country earned an international reputation for its Covid response.
But now amid fears the number of new daily cases across the country could reach 500,000, a nurse friend in Delhi had just tested positive, as had her husband, and their two children.
"They just asked us to pray for them," Mr Jain said.
"It’s really hard to see, really hard to watch — and things are getting worse."
The neighbour of Dunedin social worker Gino Thomas’ family died on Monday and now his sister’s family were all in quarantine.
He said with a population as large as India’s, the Government could not stop the tide on its own.
Since the start of the pandemic Jaison Babu said he had offered financial and psychological support to his family, but he felt helpless now, and he hoped international aid would soon make a difference.
Dunedin Malayalee Association president Jibin Devasia said there were 172 Malayalee families in Dunedin, and while Kerala was known for its healthcare and the state was not inundated "yet", there was great concern in the Dunedin community.
"The situation is not OK," he said. "Everyone is scared."
Flights from India have been suspended for the past two weeks as part of a temporary ban.
As cases mounted at New Zealand’s border of incoming travellers from India testing positive, the Government put in place a temporary travel ban.
Now at 11.59pm tonight, India along with Brazil, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea will be put on a list as part of a new travel category. As a "very high risk country" only New Zealand citizens, their parents, partners and children will be allowed into New Zealand.
Dunedin Tamil Society president Niv Kamalendran said there were up to 600 members of the Tamil community in the city looking homeward to India.
Unlike in New Zealand, a lockdown was impossible in the country of 1.4billion people. Many people were paid on a daily rather than weekly or monthly basis and especially among the country’s poor, people had to go to work to pay for food and other necessities.
Particularly in those communities, people lived in cramped conditions where social distancing was not possible.
"No-one was expecting a second wave like this," he said.
