Prince Charles and MoS for AYUSH Shripad Naik. (File photo) Prince Charles and MoS for AYUSH Shripad Naik. (File photo)

A day after Union Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik claimed that ayurvedic treatment helped UK’s Prince Charles to be cured of coronavirus, the Prince’s spokesperson on Friday rejected the claim and said that he had “followed the medical advice of the NHS in the UK”.

The Clarence House spokesperson said in an email to The Indian Express on Friday, “This information is incorrect. The Prince of Wales followed the medical advice of the NHS (National Health Service) in the UK and nothing more.”

The spokesperson was responding to Naik’s claim at a media briefing in Goa on Thursday that Prince Charles’s recovery “validates our age-old practice since thousands of years”.

Reacting to the Clarence House statement, Naik on Friday said, “It is not my information. I got a call from Isaac Mathai (who runs an ayurveda resort in Bengaluru) a day before the press conference. I told him I cannot say this, as I don’t have any written document. He told me Mr Charles is his patient and he treated him from medicines in the centre.”

Naik said, “I told him to specifically get it in writing – that he (Charles) was cured due to medication from his centre. He said he will get it but hasn’t returned the call yet, and nothing in writing has come.”

On ayurveda and claims he had made on Thursday, Naik said, “Ayurveda is a preventive medicine. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has encouraged us in the ministry to do our research. We have experts involved in this…100 formulas have been presented as cure to the virus. We have now put them to test and will release once it is scientifically validated.”

On April 1, the day Mathai called Naik, the AYUSH Ministry had, incidentally, issued an order seeking to “control dissemination of misleading information about Ayush drugs and services”. The order, signed by adviser and head of drugs policy section of the ministry, stated that all “ASU&H Regulatory Authorities…(should) stop and prevent publicity and advertisement of AYUSH-related claims for COVID-19 treatment in print, TV and electronic media…”

Here’s a quick Coronavirus guide from Express Explained to keep you updated: What can cause a COVID-19 patient to relapse after recovery? | COVID-19 lockdown has cleaned up the air, but this may not be good news. Here’s why | Can alternative medicine work against the coronavirus? | A five-minute test for COVID-19 has been readied, India may get it too | How India is building up defence during lockdown | Why only a fraction of those with coronavirus suffer acutely | How do healthcare workers protect themselves from getting infected? | What does it take to set up isolation wards?

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