Madagascar Herb Not Cure For Covid-19, Says FG
Madagascar herb is not cure for COVID-19, the Federal Government declared on Thursday.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, made the disclosure in Abuja at the 52nd Joint National Briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
According to Ehanire, the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development has shared its final report on the evaluation of the COVID Organics from Madagascar.
He said the initial report showed that its main ingredient is the same as Artemisia annua.
He added: “While the preparation at high dose showed activity in reducing the frequency of cough, it did not show any evidence that it has real curative properties against COVID-19.
“However, we shall continue to support all genuine efforts toward finding local COVID-19 cures.”
The minister also said that the COVID-19 cases recorded daily over the past weeks now fluctuate within the 500 to 700 bracket, with 543 new cases in the past 24 hours.
Ehanire said: “Accordingly, the nation’s confirmed total number in Nigeria so far is 38,344, of which 15,815 were successfully treated and discharged.
“We have regrettably recorded 813 fatalities, mostly with co-morbidities and tested a total of 247,825 persons in all.
“We can rightly assume from the exponentially increasing numbers that the pool of potentially infectious persons in the community is rising.
“And with that, the risk of infection for citizens at all levels of society, since a very significant number of persons testing positive is not in observation or treatment.”
Ehanire, however, commended persons of influence in society, who tested positive for COVID-19 and came out publicly to declare it and entrust themselves to prescribed treatment.
He noted that those concerned did the nation a lot of good by showing that there was no shame and nothing to hide about COVID-19, and they also contributed immensely to building confidence in the health system.
While commending the nation’s health care providers for their efforts, the minister said that in spite of this, the focus was still on prevention, being better and cheaper than cure.
Ehanire said the Federal Ministry of Health through the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control now had 59 molecular diagnostic laboratories for COVID-19 tests activated.
He added that with a little improvement in logistics, lack of availability of testing capacity should not be a tenable excuse any more.
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