THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The traditional medicine of Ayurveda will now become part of the state’s Covid-19 prevention, mitigation and rehabilitation measures. An action plan prepared by the Department of AYUSH in this regard has received government nod. On Wednesday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had announced that Ayurveda will become part of the Covid-19 containment plan. TNIE, on April 5, had reported the state government is thinking beyond modern medicine and will rope in Ayurveda and homoeopathy in the fight against the novel coronavirus.
“The first and foremost part of the action plan is to set up an organisational framework,” said an officer with the AYUSH Department.“For that, Ayurvedic Covid-19 response cells will be constituted at the state, regional and district levels. Also, Ayur Raksha Clinics will be formed in Ayurvedic hospitals and dispensaries.”
While the state’s three Government Ayurveda Medical Colleges will serve as the Regional Ayurveda Covid-19 Response Cells, all Ayurvedic dispensaries will serve as the basic implementation unit of the programme. Ayur Raksha Clinics have been entrusted with the task of strengthening preventive mechanisms.
4 kinds of intervention
The action plan proposes four kinds of intervention -- Swasthyam, Sukhayushyam, Punarjani and Niramaya. While the first two deal with preventive aspects, the third deals with recovery aspects. The fourth is an official virtual platform to enable the effective use of Ayurvedic strategies against Covid-19.
Swasthyam is a preventive campaign consisting of dietary, lifestyle and behavioural modifications with minimal specific medications. For that, the entire population will get classified into seven groups on the basis of age and the risk of Covid-19 exposure. The programme also envisages popularisation of simple and systematic exercises comprising yoga, essentially for a duration of 20 minutes daily to improve physical and mental health and lung compliance.
However, Sukhayushyam is a special programme for those above the age of 60. The stress will be on sustenance and promotion of general and mental health, and on minimising infection susceptibility as well as fatal complications.Punarjani is for specific Ayurvedic management of patients cured of Covid-19 during the recovery phase following the mandatory 14-day isolation after discharge from hospital.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that programmes for immediate implementation will be selected only after the constitution of the state-level response cell. Formulation of the standard operating procedure too will be finalised at the time. Later, regional and district cells, along with Ayur Raksha Clinics, will be activated for implementing the programmes.