(Fighting New Coronary Pneumonia) Hong Kong Food and Health Bureau allocates another HK$59 million to support local universities to conduct research on COVID-19
China News Service, Hong Kong, August 5th. The Food and Health Bureau (Food Sanitation Bureau) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government approved a total of 59 million yuan (HK$, the same below) from the Medical and Health Research Fund on August 5 to support local universities. For the study of COVID-19, this is the second batch of funding after 26 applications were approved on April 27.
The newly approved research covers a wide range of areas, including tracking the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 through wastewater analysis and genome monitoring, identifying factors that promote and hinder public compliance with infection control measures, and investigating the spread of the virus from animals to humans Risk analysis, analysis of the impact of smoking and influenza infection on infection, screening of antiviral compounds in traditional Chinese medicine, research on rehabilitation management of patients recovering from new coronary pneumonia, and assessment of the psychological burden of the epidemic on different groups. The duration of these studies is 12 to 24 months.
The Director of the Food and Health Bureau, Chen Zhaoshi, said that together with the first batch of applications approved in April this year, the Medical and Health Research Fund has approved a total of 170 million yuan to fund research on COVID-19. She said that the epidemic is spreading rapidly around the world, posing unprecedented challenges to the public healthcare system. The Food and Health Bureau hopes that the scientific evidence provided by these studies will help formulate anti-epidemic measures, reduce the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic and protect the health of Hong Kong citizens.
It is reported that the Medical and Health Research Fund supports research projects drawn up by individual researchers and research/projects commissioned by the Food and Health Bureau to build scientific research capabilities, fill in gaps in scientific research knowledge, assist in policy formulation, respond to specific events, assess needs and threats , And promote health and other work. (Finish)