By: Smitha George
London, April 2, 2020: COVID-19 has claimed the life of a 73-year-old Indian member of the Missionaries of Charity in the United Kingdom.
Sister Sienna was admitted to Morriston Hospital in Swansea with complications of the viral infection and succumbed to the illness on April 1.
The septuagenarian nun was working with the poor and destitute in Swansea, Wales, some 300 km west of London. She was involved in distributing food packets for those affected by the recent outbreak of coronavirus.
A native of Jharkhand state in eastern India, Sister Sienna has served the community in North London until 2016. She was also active in the spiritual services of the Indian Catholic community.
Doctor Hamza Pacheeri, an 80 year old retired gynecologist also succumbed to coronavirus in Birmingham on April 1.
A native of Perinthalmanna in Kerala, he graduated in the second batch from Government Medical College, Kozhikode.
During his long career with the National Health Service, Doctor Hamza has worked in several hospitals across the UK. He was known as a very sociable and helpful person who would go to great lengths to help the community. He was also a mentor to many young medical graduates who come to work in UK from Kerala.
Doctor Hamza was undergoing treatment for complications from coronavirus and breathed his last at City Hospital, Birmingham.
So far there have been more than 29,000 confirmed cases and 2,921 deaths from coronavirus in UK.