Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam said on Sunday that the HKSAR government will relax restrictions on current systems and policies to provide more opportunities for the development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in Hong Kong.
Led by Tong Xiaolin, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a team of seven TCM experts from the mainland arrived in Hong Kong on March 29 to assist Hong Kong in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lam said that the TCM experts have rich experiences in combating COVID-19 and treating COVID-19 patients, adding that the experts have been visiting many places in Hong Kong in the past few days and the HKSAR government agrees with the methods they proposed.
Lam said that as there are still many constrains in terms of systems and policies on the development and application of the TCM, the Food and Health Bureau will work on removing the constrains in related areas to provide more opportunities for the development of TCM in Hong Kong.
The HKSAR government invited the TCM experts from mainland to Hong Kong not only for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, but also in the hopes of opening a broad new path for the development of TCM in Hong Kong, she said.
Hong Kong registered 1,832 new COVID-19 cases by nucleic acid tests, and 1,877 additional positive cases through self-reported rapid antigen tests on Sunday, official data showed.