The nine-month pregnant nurse works at Jayachamarajendra Taluk Hospital (Representational)
A nine-month pregnant nurse on COVID-19 frontline in Karnataka has emerged as a shining example for selfless dedication to work, with Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa expressing his gratitude and requesting her to go on maternity leave.
Roopa, working on a contract basis at Jayachamarajendra Taluk Hospital in Mr Yediyurappa's home district of Shivamogga, insisted on continuing to discharge her duty despite health officials' advising against it citing her advanced pregnancy and surfacing of fresh COVID-19 cases in the district.
"Roopa, I am amazed to learn about your efforts. It is nice to learn that a woman from my district is putting in so much of efforts. At least now please take rest and return to work after delivery... I humbly request you to take rest from today," the Chief Minister told her over the phone.
Recently, the nurse was deputed to Gajanur in the same district to tackle cases of coronavirus.
She has been commuting from Teerthahalli to Gajanur by bus for the past few days.
Meanwhile, Shivamogga, which was under green zone till now, saw a spurt in cases on Sunday with eight people testing positive and one of them was from Teerthahalli.
It was then the district and Taluk health officials realised that Roopa would risk her life if she continued to work and asked her to take a break, sources in the CM office said.
However, Roopa was adamant that she would continue to serve the patients during the pandemic.
Finally, the matter was brought to the notice of Yediyurappa, who called Roopa and requested to take care of her health, following which the woman agreed to go on leave.
According to the Shivamogga District Health Officer Rajesh Suragihalli, Roopa was told that she was in the vulnerable category as per the protocol.
"We had told the Emergency Medical Officer to keep her off from the COVID-19 duty as she is in the vulnerable category because she is pregnant but the EMO replied that she insisted to continue with her work," Dr Suragihalli told PTI.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)