Look into nurses testing COVID-19 positive due to PPE shortage: Pinarayi to Modi

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government 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).

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written a letter to Modi seeking his “attention to the situation”, an official said.

In a press meet after the 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.

He said, five nurses at Delhi’s prestigious Cancer Institute have been infected with the virus amid complaints regarding lack of PPE across the country.

“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,” Vijayan said in the letter.

Vijayan said the nurses have requested that necessary steps be taken to separate people who are diagnosed positive for Coronavirus and 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, Opposition 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.