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Madagascar delivered Guinea-Bissau on Saturday a shipment of an herbal tea that President Andry Rajoelina has touted as a powerful remedy against the new coronavirus and hopes to distribute it in West Africa and beyond.
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Dubbed Covid-Organics, the drink is derived from mugwort, a plant with proven efficacy in treating malaria, and other indigenous herbs.
The self-proclaimed president of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, was at the airport to supervise the reception of the cargo donated by Madagascar, AFP correspondents said.
After Equatorial Guinea on Thursday, Guinea-Bissau is the second country to receive the potion that Madagascar says cures Covid-19 patients in 10 days.
The World Health Organization has said that the effects of herbal tea have not been proven, and there are no published scientific studies on the potion.
Embalo’s chief of staff, Califa Soares Cassama, told reporters that part of Saturday’s shipment was to pass to the other 14 members of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
Rajoelina had thanked Embalo on Friday for taking over the distribution in West Africa.
There was no indication of how Guinea-Bissau, poor even by African standards and critically politically unstable, would handle the logistics required.
The 1.8 million country has reported 200 cases of coronavirus, including Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Nabiam and four other cabinet members, and one death from the virus.
Embalo has said he will test Madagascar’s potion on top members of the government, including the prime minister.
Meanwhile, Equatorial Guinea announced that it would distribute the potion to infected people in hospitals for two weeks and, in its preventive version, to everyone else.
Back in Madagascar, unarmed soldiers have been going door to door in the capital Antananarivo delivering Covid-Organics.
When she launched the distribution last month, Rajoelina said two people had already been healed by the potion, adding: “We can change the history of the whole world.”
There is currently no scientifically proven cure for coronavirus., which has killed more than 240,000 people worldwide according to official figures compiled by AFP.
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