'Corona' over crown: Miss World England drops pageant duties to serve as COVID-19 frontliner

MANILA, Philippines — Miss World England 2019 Bhasha Mukherjee returned to the United Kingdom from overseas charity work to continue her career as a doctor in the middle of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

The beauty queen took a career break as a junior doctor after competing at the Miss World pageant in December 2019.

"I was invited to Africa, to Turkey, then to India, Pakistan and several other Asian countries to be an ambassador for various charity work," Bhasha said in a CNN interview.

Since the COVID-19 situation worsened in the UK, Bhasha called the Pilgrim Hospital in eastern England to let them know that she wanted to return work.

"When you are doing all this humanitarian work abroad, you're still expected to put the crown on, get ready... look pretty. I wanted to come back home. I wanted to come and go straight to work," said the doctor, who is also a model and an actress.

"I felt a sense of this is what I'd got this degree for and what better time to be part of this particular sector than now. It was incredible the way the whole world was celebrating all key workers, and I wanted to be one of those, and I knew I could help," she added.

Bhasha is self-isolating for one to two weeks until she can return to work as a doctor at the Pilgrim Hospital. She specializes in respiratory medicine.

"There's no better time for me to be Miss England and helping England at a time of need," said the Miss World 2019 finalist.

While in self-isolation and waiting to be deployed, Bhasha leads a petition to get a 50 percent discount in hospital accommodation for England's National Health Service medical workers.