NEW DELHI: An Indian-American father and daughter, both doctors in New Jersey, have died due to the COVID-19. Governor Phil Murphy described their demise as “particularly tough" and hailed them for dedicating their lives for others.

Satyender Dev Khanna, 78 and his 43-year-old daughter Priya Khanna died due to the highly infectious disease.

Satyender was a surgeon who served both on staff and as the head of the surgical departments for multiple hospitals across New Jersey for decades. Priya was double board certified in both internal medicine and nephrology. She was Chief of Residents at Union Hospital, now part of RWJ Barnabas Health.

"Dr. Satyender Dev Khanna and Dr. Priya Khanna were father and daughter. They both dedicated their lives to helping others. This is a family dedicated to health and medicine. Our words cannot amply express our condolences," New Jersey Governor Murphy tweeted on Thursday.

“Both dedicated their lives to helping others and we lost both of them to COVID-19,” Murphy said during a press conference on Thursday, saying their demise is a "particularly tough one.”

“And for a doctor, I'm not one, but I would bet, I don't think there could be a more fitting way to be remembered, or a nurse or a healthcare worker of any kind,” Murphy said, adding hat the doctor had a passion for bicycling, and he often found peace from the hustle of the hospital in biking along the Jersey Shore," he said.

Satyender passed away at the Clara Maass Medical Center where he had worked for more than 35 years. Like her father, she too worked at Clara Maass, where she died.

“Priya will be remembered as a caring and selfless person who put others first. And even while in the hospital, fighting her own battle, she continued to check up on her mom and dad and her family,” Murphy said.

“This is a family, by the way, dedicated to health and medicine,” he said.

The governor spoke with Satyender's wife Komlish Khanna, who is a pediatrician. The couple has two more daughters — Sugandha Khanna, an emergency medicine physician and Anisha Khanna, a pediatrician.

Also Read | Train Runs Over 15 Migrant Workers In Aurangabad