Maharashtra, the worst-affected Indian state due to Coronavirus pandemic, has decided to explore integrated treatment involving Ayurveda, Homeopathy and Unani for Covid-19 patients and appointed a committee to workout AYUSH guidelines and preventive measures to contain the virus infection.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting with experts from the fields of Ayurveda, Homeopathy and Unani medicine besides those from the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and asked them to make suggestions to the Covid-19 Task Force so that best practices from all streams could be implemented at the earliest.

“The experts were asked to work on two categories – prevention and treatment…  Contribution of all medical sectors is important to treat Coronavirus infections. Homoeopathy, Ayurvedic and Unani should give broad guidelines for the treatment in black and white,” the chief minister said.

The state recently allowed individuals and institutes working in the field of Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Siddha and Unani to conduct clinical trials and researches to find out efficacy of medicines on Covid-19, irrespective of medical streams.

Maharashtra is the worst-affected Indian state with over 3.37 lakh cases and 12, 556 deaths reported so far. The recovery rate has improved to 55.72 per cent, while the fatality rate is 3.72 per cent.