In Malaysia, more than 3,000 retired nurses volunteered to help out during the pandemic.

In the United Kingdom, their Miss England 2019 beauty queen returned home from overseas charity work to continue her career as a doctor to help Coronavirus patients.

Going straight to work

CNN reported that Bhasha Mukherjee took a career break as a junior doctor after competing in the Miss World pageant in December 2019 and represented England at the international beauty pageant.

While she was in India for some charity work, her former colleagues at the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, eastern England, were updating her about the worrying COVID-19 situation back home.

Mukherjee, who specialises in respiratory medicine, made up her mind and contacted the hospital's management team to let them know that she wanted to return to work.

She told CNN that it felt wrong to be wearing her Miss England crown, even for humanitarian work, while thousands of people around the world were succumbing to the virus and her colleagues were risking their lives every day.

"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."

"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 was quoted as saying.

After working with the British High Commission in Kolkata to find a flight back to the UK, Mukherjee returned to the country on Wednesday (8 April).