Ministry of AYUSH has taken following steps to assist the AYUSH practitioners including Ayurveda and Unani practitioners:

1. Ministry of AYUSH issued an advisory on 29.01.2020 on how to protect oneself from COVID and how to stay healthy. Ministry has written a letter on 06.03.2020 to all Chief Secretaries of States / Union territories with more specific suggestions on augmentation of General Immunity of people and about possible AYUSH intervention. Ministry has also issued self-care guidelines on 31.03.2020 for preventive health measures and boosting immunity with special reference to respiratory health.

2. Guidelines for Registered Practitioners of respective system of AYUSH (including Ayurveda and Unani) have been prepared by Research Councils and National Institutes with their team of experts and same is vetted by the Interdisciplinary AYUSH Research and Development Task Force of Ministry of AYUSH. These vetted guidelines are made available in public domain for the benefit registered AYUSH practitioners to help in the management of COVID 19 pandemic uniformly.

• III. Ministry of AYUSH and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare have jointly provided training to 33,000 AYUSH master trainers. Total 66045 AYUSH Personnel has also obtained training at igot.in platform on continual basis. Ministry of AYUSH has coordinated with MoHFW for utilisation of AYUSH manpower as COVID warrior for the management of COVID-19 with identified roles. Total 105681 AYUSH Personnel has been trained by State AYUSH Directorates and total 39555 AYUSH Personnel are deployed for Covid-19.

• IV. Ministry of AYUSH has released “National Clinical Management Protocol based on Ayurveda and Yoga for management of COVID-19” prepared by National Task force which in consensus from expert committees from All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), Delhi, Institute of Post Graduate Training and Research in Ayurved (IPGTRA), Jamnagar, and National Institute of Ayurveda (NIA), Jaipur , Central Council for Research in Ayurveda (CCRAS), Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy (CCRYN) and other national research organizations as per the Report & Recommendations of the Interdisciplinary Committee.   wherein guidelines for post-COVID-19 care have been mentioned. This protocol is based on:

i. Knowledge from   Ayurveda   literature and clinical experience

ii. Empirical evidences and Biological plausibility

iii. Emerging trends of ongoing clinical studies

The Salient features of this protocol include management of prophylactic, Asymptomatic, Mild and Moderate cases of COVID-19 along with of post-management.

Ministry of AYUSH advised States/UTs to assign the AYUSH facilities under their administrative control for supporting the treatment of the Covid-19 patients.

The Minister of State (The Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy), Sh. Kiren Rijiju (Additional Charge) stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha here today.

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MV/SJ