Abstract
Introduction: In India the first case of COVID-19 was detected on 30 January 2020. As of today the figures in India are confirmed cases 17,656, with 559 deaths so far, according to data published by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday. Of these 14,255 are active cases of COVID-19, 2,841 individuals have recovered and discharged from hospital, one person migrated to another country and 559 people succumbed to the disease. Since 31 December 2019 and as of 20 April 2020, 23,55,853 cases of COVID-19 (in accordance with the applied case definitions and testing strategies in the affected countries) have been reported, including 1,64,656 deaths.Citizens globally are impacted with diverse information on dos and don'ts during the Pandemic of CODIV-19 and were restricted to maintain a physical distancing, while under total LOCKDOWN condition and even at certain hotspots in curfew like environment. The key challenge was how to connect with the citizens and enable them to access credible information on the pandemic outbreak and how a healthy citizen can remain healthy during the most deadly attack ever happened in the world by an invisible enemy, Coronavirus-19. Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India decided to organise a series of seminar for the global community starting from 27 April to connect with the citizens and share the knowledge and communicate in simple, easy to understand language spread over six days through virtual webinar to start a consultative dialogue with all the stakeholders on issues concerning COVID 19 and how Indian Traditional Medicines (AYUSH) can play a role in globally to partner with Modern Medical Science.

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT OF INDIA TO EMPOWER CITIZENS-PATIENTS TO FIGHT AGAINST CORONAVIRUS
Government of India immediately sprang into action by launching a 24X7 Helpline Number on Phone and email: COVID-19 Helpline Number: +91-11-23978046Toll Free : 1075 Helpline Email ID: In order to enable citizens to access information from credible source and supplement the work done by Government of India and the State Governments, Patient Safety and Access Initiative of India Foundation (FSAIIF) decided to collaborate with the Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS), Banaras Hindu University (BHU) to reach out to the patients and citizens to take advantage of all the facilities provided by the various stakeholders to credible information and seek consultation on preventive and curative care through the telemedicine centre of BHU, which was made official by thGovernment of India on 25 March 2020 through a publication on “Telemedicine Practice Guidelines Enabling Registered Medical Practitioners to Provide Healthcare Using Telemedicine” released by the BOARD OF GOVERNORS, In supersession of the Medical Council of India in partnership with NITI Aayog. Subsequently Government of India launched the National Teleconsultation Centre th(CoNTeC) on 28 March 2020 a single mobile number (+91 9115444155) for seeking information from anywhere in the country/world by COVID-19 treating doctors to reach the CoNTeC which has six lines that can be used simultaneously at present. The incoming calls will be picked up by the CoNTeC Managers, who will then handover the call to the appropriate expert doctors from the clinical domains as desired by the calling specialists managing the COVID-19 cases anywhere in the country. The Managers will guide the callers in establishing a two way video call using the WhatsApp, Skype or Google Duo as preferred by the caller. The callers from the NMCN network can connect anytime using the Telemedicine infrastructure at their end. Subsequently BHU Telemedicine Centre started providing information and consultation to the citizens on phone number +91542-2368028 to connect with registered medical practitioners. The calls were received by operators and then as per patient need are transferred to respective doctors for telephone consultation.

Key words: Ayurveda, AYUSH, Corona Virus 2019, SARS CoV-2, CITIZENS-PATIENTS-FIGHT AGAINST CORONAVIRUS