[ad_1]
Published image, AFP
Pavithra Waniarachi became the fourth Sri Lankan minister to contract the virus
The Sri Lankan Minister of Health, who has promoted a herbal drink claiming that it prevents infection with COVID-19, has tested positive for the coronavirus.
A health ministry media secretary told the BBC the Pavithra-Waniaracchi test results were positive on Friday.
Waniarache promoted the drink, made by a wizard who claimed to work as a lifelong vaccine against the virus.
Sri Lanka has recorded 56,076 cases and 276 deaths since the start of the epidemic, with an increase in cases in recent months.
Waniarachi is the fourth member of the government to contract the virus. And a minister of state, who also consumed the drink, tested positive earlier this week.
The Minister of Health had taken the drink publicly and endorsed it as a way to stop the spread of the virus. “The prescription was given to him in a vision while sleeping,” said the juggler, who invented the drink containing honey and nutmeg.
Doctors nationwide have denied claims that the herbal syrup was effective, but AFP reported that thousands of people had traveled to a village to obtain it.
The ministry’s media secretary, Viraj Abysingei, told the BBC that Waniaracchi had passed two tests and the result was positive both times.
He asked the minister to self-isolate, while all those in direct contact with her were quarantined.
News of Waniarache’s infection came hours after Sri Lanka agreed to emergency use of Oxford’s vaccine, AstraZeneca. The first doses are expected to arrive in the country next week.
And Sri Lanka isn’t the only place where officials have touted unproven treatments for COVID-19.
Last year, Madagascar’s President André Rajoelina came under fire for promoting a herbal blend that he said prevented contracting the virus. And he was pictured distributing the stimulus to poor communities in the capital.
Since the start of the epidemic, a number of world leaders and government ministers have been infected with Covid-19, including French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former President Donald Trump.
Source link
