Thiruvananthapuram, April 17 (IANS) Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to the people to follow the guidelines issued by the Ministry of AYUSH to help build immunity against the coronavirus pandemic, Kerala has set the ball rolling, said State Health Minister K.K.Shailaja on Friday.

"The directive has gone that all ayurveda hospitals including clinics should work to tackle Covid-19, through 'ayurreksha clinics'. The directive has also asked the local bodies to ensure that this happens and should work to see this becomes a reality," said Shailaja.

In Kerala there are 18 ayurveda colleges and the state government had formed a task force to fight Covid-19 through ayurveda, early this month and they had worked out both a preventive and curative protocol.

--IANS sg/sdr/bg