The Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday, requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to look into reports of nurses from the state getting infected with COVID-19 in Delhi and Maharashtra allegedly due to lack of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE).

CM Vijayan in a letter written to PM Modi  sought his “attention to the situation,” Kerala government official said.

In a press briefing after the state government’s COVID-19 evaluation meet on COVID-19, Vijayan said 46 nurses from Kerala working in Mumbai have contracted the deadly virus and more than 150 nurses are under observation there.

While, in Delhi also five nurses at a prestigious Cancer Institute have been infected with the virus amid complaints regarding lack of PPE across the country.

Vijayan said, “I request that the concerned state governments may be advised to urgently look into the facts and circumstances… and provide due care, attention and necessary precautions so that the standard health protocols are followed and utmost protection is given to the health personnel who are rendering valuable service to our society,”  in the letter.

The CM said the nurses have requested for the necessary precautions like isolating Coronavirus positive people with those who presently have no symptoms.

“We are receiving frantic telephone calls from them (nurses). Many of them are informing us that there is lack of adequate precaution to prevent the contagion of the disease,” Vijayan said.

Meanwhile, the state Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala also wrote a letter to the Prime Minister seeking his “urgent intervention to improve the plight of expatriate community who are in doldrums owing to the lock down imposed by different countries”.

Chennithala sought a “specific plan” to get all NRIs who want to return to India back here immediately after the easing of flight travel restrictions.

He also sought a special economic package for them as well as the setting up of a helpline number for all NRIs to call in case of emergencies.

Kerala reported 327 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the death toll due to COVID-19 in India rose to 114 and the total number of infections soared to 4,421, including the 325 who have recovered.

Meanwhile, a Kerala hospital has indigenously developed a walk-in sample collection kiosk to test patients showing symptoms of Coronavirus. The kiosk, modelled on those used in South Korea, does not require health workers to wear protective gear.

The kiosks have built-in gloves, which can be used by health workers as protective shield while collecting throat swab samples of persons suspected with COVID-19. This will be a departure from the usual practice of wearing gloves and other protective gear, reported Livemint.