AYUSH, Yoga, Naturopathy and other health services to be functional from April 20; Check Details
17-Apr-20 02:36:35

In a recent notification by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the government has announced the commencement of some operations come April 20. According to the notification, all healthcare services along with AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) will be operational from next week.

In a recent notification by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the government has announced the commencement of some operations come April 20. According to the notification, all healthcare services along with AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) will be operational from next week. The decision has been taken to mitigate hardship of the public. This is a part of limited exemptions that will be operationalized by the states, union territories and their district administrations. “Before allowing these select additional activities, States/ UTs/ district administrations shall ensure that all preparatory arrangements with regard to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for social distancing in workplaces, factories and establishments, as also other sectoral requirements are in place,” the ministry said in its guidelines released today.

• All the hospitals, nursing homes, telemedicine facilities as well as clinics will remain open.
• Within the sector, dispensaries, pharmacies, along with other medicine shops that include Jan Aushadhi Kendras and medical equipment shops, shall resume the work.
• Collection centres and medical laboratories that will carry COVID-19 tests, are too part of the limited exemption provided by the government.
• Veterinary hospitals, those dealing with sales and supply of medicines/ vaccines will also be exempted.
• All private establishments that are authorised to support the provision for essential services, or help in the containment of Coronavirus will run in full force. These include home care providers,  supply chain firms serving hospitals and diagnostics. 
• Apart from these, manufacturing units that produce drugs, other pharmaceuticals items, medical devices, raw material, intermediate and most importantly medical oxygen and their packaging material shall be completely functional. 
• The government has also exempted the companies working for the construction of medical health infrastructure that include manufacturing of ambulances as well. 
• Movement of all healthcare workers has also been permitted. The travel is permitted within and across states and this includes air travel as well.

The guidelines have come at a time when the earlier 21-day lockdown announced by the Prime Minister has been extended for another 19 days till May 3, 2020. The nationwide lockdown that had put a hold on people’s movement, had been imposed due to an increasing number of positive COVID-19 cases across the country.