Gujarat to Try Ayurvedic Drugs; Centre Tells SC Reports of Migrants Not Getting Food, Wages are Wrong

The Gujarat government will administer Ayurvedic medicines to 75 asymptomatic COVID-19 patients in hotspot Ahmedabad to see the "time duration of their recovery" as a part of an AYUSH treatment study, news agency PTI quoted  a state health department official as saying on Monday.

Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi said the state AYUSH department had distributed an Ayurvedic medicine free-of-cost to over 1.26 crore people in Gujarat with an aim to boost their immunity.

“As many as 7,778 people under quarantine were given Ayurvedic medicine, and only 21 out of them tested positive for coronavirus,” the bureaucrat said.

Ahmedabad has reported a rapid spread of coronavirus and a mortality rate at 4.71%, which is higher than the national average, as per the state government. The biggest city in Gujarat so far has reported 102 deaths with the total 2,167 novel coronavirus positive cases.

Meanwhile, while hearing a petition seeking directions for safe transit of migrant workers to their homes amid lockdown, the Supreme Court on Monday was told by the Centre that reports in the media about migrants not getting wages and food during the lockdown period are wrong, Live Law reported.

Making this submission to a plea filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta also argued that the petition must be disposed off as it “sends a wrong message” (to keep it pending).

As on Monday evening till five, the cumulative figure of the virus has climbed to 28,380, among whom 21,132 are “active” cases in hospitals and 6,361 are cured, according to Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The death toll due to COVID-19, disease caused by the novel coronavirus has now reached 886.