Indian all-rounder Veda Krishnamurthy lost her sister Vatsala to COVID-19 on Thursday (May 06), just two weeks after her mother succumbed to the virus. The past couple of weeks have been absolutely heartbreaking for the Bengaluru cricketer, who has not let the personal loss deter her from helping others through her social media during the ongoing pandemic and amplifying their requests for help.

Her sister Vatsala Shivakumar had tested positive for COVID-19 along with her mother last month when the whole family underwent tests. Krishnamurthy’s previous coach, Irfan Sait took to his Instagram story to post about the loss of her sister on Thursday morning.

On April 24, the cricketer had taken to Twitter to inform about her mother’s demise and had urged everyone to pray for her sister, who was still fighting the battle against COVID-19.

“Appreciate all the messages I have received about the loss of my Amma. As you can imagine my family is lost without her. We now pray for my sister. I have tested negative & appreciate if you can respect our privacy. My thoughts & prayers go out to those going through the same,” she wrote in a tweet.

COVID-19 has been claiming lives at a deadly pace across the country with lakhs of people testing positive for the infection on a daily basis. India has been reporting over 3 lakh cases on a daily basis while thousands are losing their lives. The country’s healthcare infrastructure has been left overburdened by the unprecedented spike in cases with patients struggling for necessities like beds, oxygen, and important medicines.

Krishnamurthy, who is an integral member of the Indian women’s cricket team, had made her debut for Team India in a T20I against Australia, in June 2011. She has since been a vital cog in the white-ball setup. She has played 48 ODIs and 76 T20Is so far in her career with 829 and 875 runs respectively. She has three wickets to her name in ODIs.