Kerala High Court allows homeopathic doctors to prescribe medicines for COVID prevention

In a landmark verdict, a single-judge bench of the Kerala High Court allowed homeopathic doctors to prescribe and dispense medicines for COVID-19 prevention. Justice N Nagaresh was hearing a plea filed by Dr Jayaprasad Karunakaran who was prevented from treating novel coronavirus patients in Thiruvananthapuram recently. Claiming that he has saved serious COVID-19 patients in foreign countries, he revealed that the Kerala Health Department was going to book him under sections of the Disaster Management Act.

The judge arrived at his conclusions after considering the rulings by the Supreme Court, the Kerala HC and an AYUSH Ministry circular. At present, there are 1,39,481 active novel coronavirus cases in the state while 25,24,248 patients have recovered while 10437 deaths were reported. While a total of 86,71,189 persons have been inoculated in Kerala till now, 22,00,898 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too. 

Here are the HC's other directions:

• Homoeopathic physicians can resort to Homoeopathy for symptom management of COVID-19 like illnesses
• They may provide Add on interventions to the conventional cases of COVID-19 and prescribe drugs as mentioned in the guidelines but the suggested medicines should be as adjuvant to Standard Management Guidelines in the hospital setting only with the approval of authorities and willingness of the patient/guardian
• Advertisement by Homoeopathic doctors is prohibited in view of Regulation 6 of the Homoeopathic Practitioners (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Code of Ethics) Regulations, 1982 read with Sections 33 and 24 of the Homoeopathic Central Council Act, 1973

Kerala government extends lockdown

On Monday, The Kerala government extended the COVID-19 related lockdown in the state till 16 June to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Stationery, jewellery, footwear, clothing and optical shops will remain open from 7 am to 7 pm on June 11 ahead of the total lockdown on the weekend. Meanwhile, all industrial establishments can function with minimum employees not exceeding 50 per cent of total strength.

The shops and units supplying raw materials to industrial establishments can remain open till 5 pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. On the other hand, shops selling education books, textiles for weddings, jewellery and footwear can function till 5 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Moreover, the sale of toddy will be permitted by following COVID-19 protocols.