By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, May 4: Dr Runa Jha, Chief Pathologist and Director of National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL), has made it to the prestigious list of five top women who are frontline responders of COVID-19.
Dr Jha, 42, has made it into the list of top five stories of women who are in the frontline of COVID-19 response, for her leading coronavirus testing efforts in Nepal.
UN Women on 28th April revealed the top five stories of frontline women. The list was made public on World Day for Safety and Health at Work.
She and her team of NPHL are testing roughly 70 samples a day, which arrive at irregular intervals and make for round-the-clock work.
Dr Jha is the Director of the National Public Health Laboratory in Nepal, which is linked with 277 government laboratories across the country and is the only lab authorized to conduct COVID-19 testing.
She is the Chief Pathologist along with 67 team members, who are playing a crucial role in the front-line response to COVID-19, said UN Women.
Months into the pandemic, the intense work continues. Jha does her best to support the workers and boost morale, the UN Women stated.
The demands of the job have been challenging for Jha too. She’s living alone, separated from her daughter and husband, because she fears risking their lives with infection. She can’t visit her parents either, who she used to see three times a week.
Sharing her story with UN Women, Dr Jha said, “Staying late at the lab has become the norm. In addition to the technical work, I also have to manage logistics, such as arranging transportation and food for my team.”
Taking care of her team is a high priority for her; it all begin in mid-February when her group was the first to enter a quarantine facility housing 175 Nepali students brought home from Wuhan, China.
“My team did not hesitate to volunteer to take samples, all of them were ready. We worked the whole night and produced 175 reports the following day,” she shared.
Months into the pandemic, the intense work continues. Jha does her best to support the workers and boost morale, the UN Women stated.
“It is a very difficult time for us, and I have to keep them motivated. I talk to them whenever I sense they are feeling down. I tell them their safety is our priority,” she says.
“I want to hug my daughter and take care of my parents, but this sacrifice needs to be made to keep them and others safe,” Jha says.