COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) – Sri Lanka’s health minister, who has been criticized for consuming and approving a herbal syrup made by a wizard, has tested positive for COVID-19.
A Health Ministry official confirmed on Saturday that Pavithra Wanniarachchi had become the highest official to be infected with the virus. She and her immediate contacts were asked to self-quarantine.
Doctors said there was no scientific basis for syrup as a cure for coronavirus. It is said to contain honey and nutmeg.
Thousands gathered in long queues in December in the town of Kegalle, northeast of the capital Colombo, to obtain the syrup, just days after Wanniarachchi and other government officials consumed it in public.
The syrup maker said that he obtained the formula through his divine powers. In the local media, he claimed that the Hindu goddess Kaali appeared to him in a dream and gave the recipe to save humanity from coronavirus.
Sri Lanka is used to taking both regular and indigenous alternative medicines to cure the ailments.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced that Sri Lanka will receive the first stockpile of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in India on January 27th.
He said India is granting this stock free and his government is making arrangements to buy more vaccines from India, China and Russia.
On Friday, Sri Lanka approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine amid warnings from doctors that front-line health workers should be inoculated quickly to prevent the medical system from collapsing. The vaccine was the first to be approved for emergency use in Sri Lanka.
The Ministry of Health says that the inoculation will start by mid-February.
Sri Lanka witnessed a new outbreak of the disease in October, when two groups – one centered on a garment factory and the other on the main fish market – appeared in Colombo and its suburbs.
Sri Lanka reported 52,964 cases with 278 deaths.
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This story was corrected to show that the city where people lined up for syrup was Kegalle.
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