NELLORE: About 40,000 people turned up at Krishnapatnam village in Nellore district on Friday for the so-called herbal medicine for Covid-19 Covid care centers and other facilities treating Covid patients in the district reported thin admissions as thousands thronged the sea-side village to get the ‘medicine’.

Police, who initially allowed distribution of the alleged medicine, stopped it on Friday and registered a case against the teacher-turned-Ayurveda expert, who claimed his “wonder drug would bring Covid-19 patients out of the death bed in no time”.

The state government has ordered an investigation by the Krishnapatnam village in Nellore districtIndian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to verify the claim.

However, district officials attributed the low turnout at Covid centers to a decline in positive cases in the last few days, as a video of a hospital with empty beds went viral on social media.

Nellore district administration refuted social media reports that Covid-19 patients are getting discharged from hospitals and rushing to Krishnapatnam to take the herbal concoction.

Joint collector MN Harendhira Prasad said positive cases have come down in the district over the last few days. “Till last week, the government general hospital in Nellore town was struggling to accommodate Covid-19 patients, which prompted many to rush to Chennai for treatment,” he said while dismissing the viral video showing vacant beds in the hospital ward. “It is a false campaign. No patient was discharged from the Covid ward in GGH.”

The state government has directed the health department to depute special teams from ICMR and other central agencies to ascertain the authenticity of the ‘herbal medicine’. The Ayush department will also coordinate with the Central Council for Research in Krishnapatnam village in Nellore districtAyurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) to check its ingredients.

Local legislator Kakani Govardhan Reddy, who is overseeing the distribution of the ‘medicine’, said they will wait for clearances from the departments concerned before starting its distribution again.

Ayush commissioner Colonel Ramulu said the components in the Krishnapatnam village in Nellore districtherbal ‘medicine’ were within the prescribed standards and they found no harmful contents in their preliminary investigation. He, however, said it would take another week to get the laboratory report on its efficacy.

All roads leading to Krishnapatnam village in Nellore districtKrishnapatnam were packed with vehicles, including ambulances with patients on oxygen support, on Friday. Many vehicles were stranded in the narrow lanes leading to the village. Many people left their vehicles on the road and walked for over three kilometers to get the medicine. Additional police forces were deployed to manage the crowd.

Govardhan Reddy said the formulation was ready only for about 4,000 people and the turnout was unprecedented, adding that it’s not possible to prepare the medicine for so many patients in such a short duration.

On Thursday, an official committee that investigated the concoction claimed that oxygen saturation levels in some patients went up from 85 to 95% within a few minutes of the administration of the eye drops containing the herbal ‘medicine’, which led people to rush to the village in desperation.

This is the such second instance in the Telugu states after the ‘fish prasadam’ in Hyderabad, where Battina Harinath Goud and his family distributed it for several years claiming it could cure chronic asthma cases. Thousands of people used to stand in long queues to get the fish medicine. However, following objections raised by medical professionals and court cases, the craze for the fish medicine dipped.