Have Covid-19 And In Home Isolation? Govt Advises On Medicines To Be Taken

Covid treatment: NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr VK Paul said Covid-19 patients in home isolation should take paracetamol for fever and for cough, Ayush syrup could be used.

NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr V K Paul expressed concern over the 'overuse and misuse' of Covid drugs (Getty Images)

New Delhi: The government expressed concern over "misuse and overuse" of Covid-19 drugs as cases continue to spike in India driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

Addressing a press conference, NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr VK Paul said Covid-19 patients in home isolation should take paracetamol for fever and for cough, Ayush syrup could be used.

"For fever, paracetamol is given, and for cough, Ayush syrup can be used. This is what we have prescribed in the home care module too. If cough continues for more than three days, there is an inhaler called Budesonide these are the only three things that need to be done," Dr VK Paul said.

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Other than that, have warm water, do gargles in home care and take rest, he said.

Dr VK Paul said for those requiring hospitalisation, there were clear cut guidelines on use of medicines like dexamethasone and remdesivir.

"When we go to the hospital too and there is a need for oxygen, then based on clinical judgment there is medicine - methylprednisolone or dexamethasone. Heparin is also given by the doctors inside hospitals...there are clear cut guidelines for remdesivir too there is no point of giving it at home - it led to overuse, panic and misuse," he said.

Paul said these protocols had been developed by best experts and "we have a true concern of overuse misuse of medicines in Covid treatment".

"The use of steroids can increase the chances of mucormycosis. Steroids are very potent life saving drugs but they are also have side effects and they disturb the immunological protection, they disturb many biochemical pathways so it was a very big lesson," he further said.

"This is an appeal that general public should be aware that there is a set of rational treatments that are listed under the national protocols -ayush and mainstream protocol and we must be confined to that," Dr VK Paul said.

India added 1,94,720 new infections to its tally of Covid-19 cases, pushing it to 3,60,70,510, according to the Union Health Ministry data on Wednesday. 

Active cases have increased to 9,55,319, the highest in 211 days. The death toll has climbed to 4,84,655, with 442 fresh fatalities.