REPORTS of COVID-19 ravaging cities and towns in India come in every day.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
With the seven-day average amount of positive cases from those tested, the number is about to tip over 400,000 people a day.
Residents across the region have expressed their concerns for family and friends as technology allows for daily interactions between loved ones across the seas.
But for Halls Gap restauranteur Gary Singh, his concerns are of a different nature.
He can't understand why in his home town village Todar Majra, and others around it, COVID hasn't taken hold as it has in bigger cities.
Mr Singh said his village was a farming community and only had 1,500 people living there.
"There are many other villages near there but we haven't heard of any covid cases around there," he said.
OTHER NEWS:
"Farmers are travelling to the New Delhi border.
"There are millions of farmers who go there. They have no social distancing and no one is getting infected either.
"It's a very very strange thing."
Mr Singh said he had some family in big cities who were impacted by the coronavirus.
"My sister's father-in-law passed away because he had covid and the whole family got the virus," he said.
"I was told their whole street got infected and many ended up in hospital.
"But when you are talking to people in the villages, I haven't heard a single person say someone has covid.
"I ask, 'why do you not wear a mask'. But they tell me they don't have covid and they don't feel the need.
MORE NEWS:
"If you go to a bigger city, say, Chunni Kalan, which is only 20km from my village people are dying."
Mr Singh's said he had spoken to hospitals in his region that cater for 10 small villages.
"They couldn't explain it to me either," he said.
"They told me they didn't know the reason but maybe it's the pollution or panic that has triggered so many covid deaths.
"No one knows really.
"We aren't very regional people - most of the people in my village do their jobs in the big cities and travel each day there and back - but no one is infected."
Mr Singh, who owns the Spirit of Punjab restaurant in Halls Gap, migrated to Australia in 2005 from the Punjab area of India.
When asked about the Australian Government's ban on flights coming into Australia from India, Mr Singh said although it was unfortunate, he believed it was the right thing.
"The strain of the virus in India is a different one to what we had here in Australia," he said.
"There are young children who have died from this. People from the cities in India have told me this is a really bad strain.
"People have said their lungs are completely destroyed because of this - they are young without any disease or anything.
"If the government here believe they should stop people coming here to stop that strain of virus getting in then I think it's fair enough."
While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox from The Ararat Advertiser. To make sure you're up-to-date with all the news from across the Ararat shire, sign up here.