Chennai, June 25: With reports of successful recovery of 25 coronavirus patients in Chennai, Tamil Nadu government is all set to expand the native Siddha treatment for patients with no or mild symptoms. The first expansion of Siddha treatment will be done at the Ambedkar College at Vyasarpadi in the capital city, which is a coronavirus hotspot.

Claiming 100 percent recovery rate, the state government has taken the decision to expand native Siddha treatment for COVID-19 patients. The Tamil Nadu Development Minister K Pandiarajan even cited ancient Tamil way of treatment and denied the claim of this move as unscientific medical practice. Patanjali Was Issued Licence For Immunity Booster, Cough & Fever, Coronavirus Was Not Mentioned in Application, Alleges Uttarakhand Ayurved Dept.

Elaborating more on the latest government move, Pandiarajan said, as quoted by NDTV, "There is a 100 per cent success rate. We are not endangering lives. Siddha is a trump card for us. We are blending Siddha, Yoga and Ayurveda. There is no empirical verification but there is enough history. People have faith. We are documenting many cases now." He went to add, "Siddha doesn't have the last mile - ventilator or oxygen support. Then allopathy takes over for such cases. That's only less than 3 per cent of total cases."

Though the minister has stated government stand, doctors say that they are giving Siddha treatment only for willing cases among symptomatic and mild cases. Apart from this, doctors even state that Siddha is not proven through documented studies, trials and results.

Earlier on Wednesday, Uttarakhand Ayurved Department's Licence Officer alleged that licence was issued for immunity booster, cough and fever to Patanjali, which has launched "Coronil and Swasari" products, that claim to cure coronavirus. The officer has also said that Patanjali didn't mention coronavirus in the application. On Tuesday, after the launch of the medicine, the government immediately asked Patanjali Ayurved to stop advertising medicines as "coronavirus cures" until they are verified.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 25, 2020 11:16 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).