Kathmandu: Nepal's government has not issued any formal ban order against Patanjali's Ayurveda-based Coronil in the country, a health ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Yoga Guru Ramdev had introduced Ayurveda-based Coronil tablets on June 23 last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak in India.

Health Ministry Spokesperson Dr. Krishna Prasad Poudyal refuted media reports that the Nepal government has banned Coronil in the country.

"The government has not issued any formal ban order against the medicine," he said.

He said that any type of medicines which are supposed to be distributed to the general public needs to be registered at the Department of Drug Administration under the Ministry of Health and Population first.

A packet of Coronil was gifted to Nepal's then Health Minister Hridayesh Tripathi some time ago, Poudyal said.

"Other than that I have no information regarding the matter, he added.

There is no proof that Coronil can cure corona disease, said a Health Ministry official on condition of anonymity.

There are many Ayurvedic medicines available in Nepal, which can boost immunity of individuals and may also help to get rid of corona infection. However, the World Health Organisation has not yet approved any medicine that can cure corona, he added.

Last month, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) asked The Haridwar-based Patanjali Yogpeeth to withdraw a "misleading" advertisement from all platforms endorsing "Coronil kit", a product of his firm, as an effective medicine for COVID-19, failing which it said an FIR and a criminal case will be lodged against Ramdev.

Nepal on Tuesday reported 3,870 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of cases to 5,95,364. The Health Ministry also said 108 new deaths were reported, including figures from the past few days based on the statistics from the Nepal Army.

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Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.

The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.

Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.

The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.

India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.

In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.

Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.

The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.

It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.

Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.

The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.

The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.

On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.