The Arunachal Pradesh government led by Chief Minister Pema Khandu was praised by Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday in excelling to combat COVID-19.

At Civil Secretariat, the distribution campaign of Ayush-64 tablet for COVID-19 patients and Ayurveda immunity booster medicine was launched. The Union Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs and Ayush said the Centre and state governments are working together to manage the pandemic.

“The central government has ensured that all essential commodities including ration items, petroleum products, gas, etc, are made available to the people at right places,” he said.

Rijiju said, the Centre plans to supply free ration to 80 crore plus people till Deepawali.

Covid testing and screening kits were also handed over to the state health department by Rijiju.

The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), the apex body for research in Ayurveda under the Ministry of Ayush, for management of Malaria, developed the Ayush-64 which is an Ayurvedic formulation.

The tablets were mainly developed for Malaria, said Rijiju. However, from clinical studies across India, scientific evidence has been gathered that has identified that Ayush-64 has potential assistance to standard care in managing asymptomatic, mild and moderate COVID-19 cases.

The union minister said, though MP Local Area Development (LAD) funds have been suspended for a year now, he had managed to gather

The tablets and COVID-19 testing and screening kits were managed via volunteer donation from the union minister’s contacts across the globe, even though MP Local Area Development (LAD) funds have been suspended for a year.

He said, “We are in a war against the global pandemic. The government funds alone are not sufficient to win over it. I appeal to like-minded people and NGOs to come forward to help people as much as possible”, adding that he is trying to get help from outer sources.

Arunachal Pradesh Health and Family Welfare Minister Alo Libang was grateful that he could be a part of the COVID- 19 medicines launching programme and he expressed his gratitude to Rijiju for his generous contribution towards the department.