Covid-19: AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik's health stable, but recovery still far

The health of Union Minister of State for AYUSH and Defence Shripad Naik has stabilised, but recovery from Covid-19 still far away, a doctor examining the BJP leader said, even as the Congress on Tuesday demanded a daily medical bulletin with the details of the North Goa MP's health to be placed in the public domain.

67-year-old Naik, whose oxygen saturation levels had dropped on Monday, will not be airlifted to Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences for treatment, said Dr Shekhar Salkar, a top oncologist at Panaji’s Manipal Hospital and also a BJP state executive member.

“He is good now. He is stable… He will need a long time to recover. It will not be a fast recovery,” said Salkar, who was accompanying a team of doctors from the AIIMS which had been dispatched to Goa late on Monday to examine Naik’s health.

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Naik tested coronavirus positive on August 12 and was initially in home isolation, but was hospitalised sone days later after his condition worsened.

At the Manipal Hospital, the Union Minister was administered high flow nasal oxygen and plasma treatment after which his health somewhat stabilised.

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After Monday’s dip in oxygen levels, Shripad Naik’s saturation levels had now stabilised at 95, Dr Salkar also said. Naik has already tested negative for Covid-19 according to a test carried out late on Monday. A second test is expected to be conducted later on Tuesday night.

The Congress meanwhile has alleged that the state and the Central government was trying to create a web of secrecy around the health of Naik and demanded an issue of a medical bulletin detailing the condition of Naik every day until he was hospitalised.

“For the last several days Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik is taking treatment in a private hospital. The Goa government and central government has not issued a health bulletin. Shripad Naik is a public servant and a Union Minister. Information about his health should be released to the people. We demand of the state and central governments to issue a health bulletin with details of Naik’s health immediately,” State Congress president Girish Chodankar has demanded.