Managing Borders during Global Public Health Emergencies; Lessons Learned from COVID-19

Date:

22 January 2026, Thursday

Time:

10:00 – 11.30am SGT (GMT+08:00)

Platform:

MD1 Tahir Foundation Building, Level 8, Seminar Room 1

Synopsis:

The unprecedented use of international travel measures (ITMs) during the COVID-19 pandemic became a challenging and, eventually, controversial policy issue. Evidence from the pandemic shows that these measures can play an important role in slowing or reducing the introduction and onward spread of pathogens like SARS-CoV-2. However, the largely uncoordinated, varied, and frequently changing ways in which ITMs were used during the pandemic led to suboptimal public health outcomes, as well as costly, inequitable, and societally divisive secondary impacts.

The complexity of applying different ITMs means that the evidence base on best practices continues to evolve. As future pandemic events are likely to involve a fast-moving novel pathogen spreading in a highly globalised world, public health responses will again need to make decisions about mitigating travel-related risks in real time.

Drawing on more than five years of research on ITMs and pandemic events by the Pandemics and Borders Project, this lecture will review the current evidence on their use and the key lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. This will be followed by a panel discussion about experiences in the Southeast Asian region and a Q&A session.

About the speakers/panellists:

Prof Kelley Lee, Canada Research Chair Tier I in Global Health Governance, Simon Fraser University and University of British Columbia, Canada

Prof Hsu Li Yang, Director, Asia Centre for Health Security, Singapore

Adj Associate Professor Marc Ho, Director, Manpower Standards and Development, Ministry of Health, Singapore

Datuk Dr Chong Chee Kheong, Senior Advisor, ASEAN Mitigation of Biological Threats Program, Malaysia

Assistant Professor Borame Dickens, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore (NUS)