Coronavirus: 5 Superwomen Who Are Working To Help India Win Fight Against COVID-19

At present, the world is facing a severe outbreak of coronavirus. Due to which several people are affected and thousands lost their lives. Not only this but this pandemic has also compelled people to stay indoors and avoid going out, thereby, leading to a decrease in the economy. In order to ensure citizens of India are safe and healthy, the Government of India has imposed a nation-wide lockdown. But it is the police officials and many other people working in different fields to make this lockdown successful. Among those people are some women who are on duty regularly without any ignorance in some of the key fields such as administration, health departments, research and cure.

So, let us know about these women and in what ways they are contributing during this challenging time.

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1. Beela Rajesh

Beela Rajesh who works as the Health Secretary of Tamil Nadu is giving her best efforts to overcome the challenges during this pandemic. She is an IAS officer of 1997 batch. Before serving as the Health Secretary, Rajesh who is an MBBS graduate from the Madras Medical College worked as a sub-collector in Chengalpattu. She also worked as the commissioner of Indian Medicine and Homeopathy after which she started working as the Health Secretary in 2019. At present, she is trying her best to keep people informed and aware of the coronavirus.

She also responds to the queries of people during this lockdown and asking them to stay calm. In her recent post on Twitter, she said, "Virus can affect anyone, let's be gentle and sensitive towards each other and wage a coordinated battle against Covid19."

2. Preeti Sudan

She works as a secretary at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Her current work comprises of aligning all the departments so that measures taken by the Government can be executed in a better way. Preeti Sudan is presently coordinating with Harsh Vardhan, the Union Health Minister. She along with the sister departments reviews the daily situation of the coronavirus. It is due to Sudan's effort that 645 stranded Indian students in Wuhan were brought back to India.

One of the officials from her department told to press, "She is also involved in the regular review of preparedness with the states and union territories. Also, she is the first point of contact for any query arising from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office or from the office of Union Minister."

Preeti Sudan is an IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh Cadre of the 1983 batch. She is M.Phil in Economics and has done her post-graduation from the London School of Economics.

3. Dr. Nivedita Gupta

Dr. Nivedita Gupta works at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) as a Senior Scientist in the Division of Epidemiology & Communicable Diseases. Gupta is also the in-charge of viral She is also playing a key role in winning the battle against coronavirus outbreak. In this challenging situation, she is working on designing the testing and treatment protocols for coronavirus.

Dr. Gupta holds a Ph.D. degree in molecular medicine from the Jawahar Lal Nehru University. She has played a significant role in establishing a network of virus research and diagnostic laboratories. Today there are 106 laboratories across the nation that is more like the backbone of India in investing and detecting the outbreak of several viruses across the nation. Dr. Gupta has aggressively investigated some of the viral outbreaks such as influenza, enteroviruses, rubella, arboviruses (chikungunya, dengue, Zika & Japanese encephalitis), measles and many others.

She also served as the main scientist in the investigation and containment required during the outbreak of Nipah virus in Kerala last year. One of the officials from her department told to press, "She worked day and night, including Sundays, to investigate the Nipah cases last year. It was not even a pandemic like a coronavirus. Nowadays, for several days together, several scientists stay in the office to conclude the investigations, including her."

4. Dr. Priya Abraham

Dr. Priya Abraham is the director of the National Insitute of Virology, Pune. She came up with the idea of isolating COVID-19 patients. She made this medical breakthrough that has eased in understanding the disease and then finding the treatment for it. At present when there is an upsurge in the COVID-19 positive cases, NIV has reduced the time taken for testing the infection in a person. Under the guidance of Dr. Priya Abraham, NIV has helped the network labs of ICMR in troubleshooting and ensuring the reagent supplies to those laboratories.

Abraham told The Print, "The achievements which NIV has made at this crucial juncture were not possible without a hardworking and well-coordinated team."

She completed her MBBS degree, MD (Medical Microbiology) and Ph.D. from Christian Medical College in Vellore. She has drafted the syllabus of Doctor of Medicine (DM) in Virology.

5. Renu Swarup

Renu Swarup works as a secretary in the Department of Biotechnology in the Ministry of Science and Technology. She known as one of the most-sough after scientists at her workplace. She is currently working on finding a vaccine for coronavirus. She is spending most of her time in finding a vaccine as soon as possible. According to an interview with The Print Swarup told that she is trying to scale up the manufacturing capacity of start-ups that are currently working on making lost-cost coronavirus testing kits.

She holds a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Genetics. She has also served as a member of Task Force on Women in Science. This task force is constituted by the Scientific Advisory Committee.

Also read: International Women's Day 2020: Things Women Want In Their Lives

We salute these women who are doing their work tirelessly and with full dedication.