Sri Lankan health minister who endorsed 'Covid syrup' tests positive
The shaman who invented the syrup, which contains honey and nutmeg, said the recipe was given to him in a visionary dream
Sri Lanka's health minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi, who promoted herbal syrup to prevent Covid, has tested positive for coronavirus on Friday.
She had promoted the syrup made by a shaman, who claimed it worked as a life-long inoculation against the virus, BBC reports.
Ms Wanniarachchi took two Covid-19 tests and both returned positive results, Viraj Abeysinghe, media secretary at the Ministry of Health told the BBC.
The minister has been asked to self-isolate and all of her immediate contacts have gone into isolation.
She is the fourth Sri Lankan minister to test positive. A junior minister, who also took the potion, tested positive earlier this week.
The shaman who invented the syrup, which contains honey and nutmeg, said the recipe was given to him in a visionary dream.
Doctors in the country have quashed claims the herbal syrup works, but AFP news agency reports thousands have travelled to a village to obtain it.
The health minister had publicly consumed and endorsed the syrup as a way of stopping the spread of the virus.
News of Ms Wanniarachchi's positive test came hours after Sri Lanka approved the emergency use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. The first doses are expected to arrive in the country next week.
Sri Lanka recorded 56,076 cases and 276 deaths since the pandemic began, with cases surging in recent months.
