Anti-epidemic proprietary Chinese medicines and other medical supplies arrive in Hong Kong progressively (with photo)

     The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau said today (March 2) that the task force of ensuring medical supplies led by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development (SCED), Mr Edward Yau, has been working closely with their Mainland counterparts. A new batch of 100 000 boxes of anti-epidemic proprietary Chinese medicines donated by the nation is arriving in Hong Kong in batches.

     At a donation ceremony today, Mr Yau expressed gratitude to the Central Government for its care of Hong Kong's anti-epidemic work and the provision of a large quantity of proprietary Chinese medicines and other medical supplies for fighting the epidemic.

     Mr Yau said that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is now distributing the proprietary Chinese medicines and other supplies, through the Hong Kong Community Anti-Coronavirus Link (the Link), to families and members of the public in need, in order to fight the virus together.

     The task force is receiving a total of 450 000 boxes of anti-epidemic proprietary Chinese medicines, including the new batch arriving in Hong Kong progressively. Among them, 170 000 boxes have been given to the Link and other local organisations for distribution to the community.
 
     The remaining proprietary Chinese medicines delivered to Hong Kong are being distributed through relevant departments to those receiving treatment at 18 Chinese medicine clinics under the Hospital Authority (HA) and people who had tested positive at isolation facilities, allowing citizens in need to obtain these proprietary Chinese medicines donated by the Central Government as soon as possible.

     The task force of ensuring medical supplies is working at full speed to co-ordinate the deliveries of the large number of medical supplies from the Mainland, including rapid antigen test (RAT) kits, masks, protective gear and medical products.

     The task force has so far received more than 18 million RAT kits. Except for those reserved for the Compulsory Universal Testing (CUT), more than 10 million RAT kits have been distributed through relevant departments and the Link to members of the public in various districts, specified high-risk and target groups.

     More than 320 000 pulse oximeters received by the task force have all been distributed to the Department of Health (DH) and the HA for patient use.

     Meanwhile, the task force has received about 31.8 million N95 and KN95 masks. While the masks are reserved mainly for public use during the CUT for enhancing protection, about 1 million of them have been delivered to frontline staff of the DH and the disciplined services.

     The task force will continue to co-ordinate with various government departments and agencies on the medical supplies needed to ensure that resources can be expeditiously supplied to Hong Kong to cope with the epidemic.