A health minister who drank a 'sorcerer's potion' has tested positive for Covid-19.
Pavithra Wanniarachchi, from Sri Lanka, had claimed that the herbal drink, which was made up of just honey and nutmeg, would protect her from the deadly disease.
However, she has now come in for some criticism after it was revealed that she has since contracted the deadly disease - the highest ranking official in the country to do so.
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According to the authorities in Sri Lanka, Ms Wanniarachchi and those with whom she has been in contact have been told to self-isolate.
Health officials have said there is no scientific basis for claims that the drink could protect someone from the virus.
However, reports stated that thousands of people in the village of Bandara, near the country's capital of Colombo queued up for hours last month to get their hands on the 'potion' after seeing that Ms Wanniarachchi and other ministers had taken it.
The person behind the drink reportedly claimed that they received the recipe from the Hindu goddess of Kali after she appeared to them in a dream.
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On Friday (22 January), Sri Lanka authorised the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
The president Gotabaya Rajapaksa said that front-line health workers, the army, the police, and the most vulnerable elderly would be the first to receive the vaccine.
Speaking about the dire situation in the country, with cases on the rise, Dr. Haritha Aluthge from the Government Medical Officers' Association, said it was vital the vaccine was rolled out as quickly as possible.
She said: "Hundreds of health care workers are tested positive in several hospitals. When you have one positive case about 10 health workers will need to be sent on quarantine. System is collapsing day by day.
"Vaccines need to be given quickly to keep the health workers' morals up and we need health workers to treat patients."
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Sri Lanka has recorded 56,863 cases of coronavirus, with 278 people having died.
According to reports, Sri Lanka is seeing around 500 new cases of the disease every day.
A top scientist recently claimed that the Covid pandemic could have been avoided if China had warned the world earlier.
The claims were made in the coronavirus documentary, Outbreak: The Virus That Shook the World, which aired on ITV on 19 January.
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Infectious diseases specialist Dr Yi-Chun Lo, the Deputy Director-General of Centres for Disease Control in Taiwan, said: "The very early outbreak management was just a mess, a failure.
"I think the pandemic could have been avoided at the beginning if China was transparent about the outbreak and was quick to provide necessary information to the world."
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