The Ethiopian government has expressed an interest in using traditions Chinese medicine to fight COVID-19.

This follows a video conference involving high-level officials from the Ethiopian Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MoIT) and the Ethiopian Ministry of Health (MoH) as well as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners and researchers.

MoIT said the meeting focused on ways of applying traditional Chinese medicine to combat the spread of COVID-19.

"China, in particular, has agreed to provide to Ethiopia the two types of Chinese traditional medicines that the country applied to successfully treat the first two stages of the novel coronavirus," a MoIT statement read.

MoIT noted that China was ready to share its experience in controlling COVID-19 and also agreed to help institutionalize Ethiopia's traditional medicine practice though technological, material and professional support that would eventually uplift the use of Ethiopian traditional medicine in the East African country’s fight against the spread of COVID-19.

Ethiopia's Minister of Innovation and Technology Abraham Belay hailed China for its support, noting that it "is injecting a major boost in Ethiopia's efforts to prevent and contain the spread of COVID-19."

Ethiopia is one of 52 African countries that have reported cases of COVID-19. The country has recorded 65 cases and two deaths. 4 people successfully recovered.

Africa has reported close to 11,000 COVID-19 cases, with over 500 deaths. Over 1,000 people have recovered.