COVID-19 Opinion

COVID-19 cases surpassed 700,000 globally in just three months since the virus first emerged. Dean, Professor Teo Yik Ying called for effective responses at both national and international levels in face of this unprecedented pandemic. He explained that low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) were unable to adequately manage the outbreak due to the lack of required technology, training and resources. Prof Teo urged leaders of LMICs to recognise the challenges in their healthcare systems and reach out for international support as a coordinated global effort is required to respond toRead more

The United Kingdom’s ‘herd immunity strategy’ to combat COVID-19 has gained renewed attention after its Prime Minister and Health Minister tested positive for the virus. Assistant Professor Hannah Clapham wrote that herd immunity can be the outcome of a strategy or action, most sensibly, of vaccination. But in UK, herd immunity for COVID-19 has been discussed as the outcome of taking minimal action and letting many in the population get infected. A key issue in the discussion around this strategy, Dr Clapham noted, is one that has been seen more

With so much conflicting information about the coronavirus pandemic on the internet, the World Economic Forum asked their Instagram followers to submit questions about the crisis. Experts from around the world — including Dean, Professor Teo Yik Ying, and Dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Michelle Williams — answered questions like: Can you have COVID-19 and show no symptoms? Can one get coronavirus for a second time? How long can the virus survive on surfaces? Is it possible that one day this will happen again? Is there

Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang and Dr Tan Min-Han served as frontline physicians at Singapore’s Communicable Disease Centre (now the National Centre for Infectious Diseases) during the SARS outbreak and they are now involved in responding to the COVID-19 challenge in the country. In the spirit of international cooperation, they share their experiences and observations that may be of benefit to other countries, systems and individuals during this global challenge. These include a whole-of-government response, aggressive but targeted quarantine measures, emphasis on public health communication, and support for healthcare workers.

Countries thought to be recovering from the COVID-19 outbreak, like China and Singapore, remain susceptible and can expect a likely surge in imported cases and new outbreaks. This is especially so given the growing numbers in Europe, North America and several countries in the Middle East, along with cases arising in African and South American countries. How can we end, or at least manage, this pandemic? The answer lies in trying to convert a ‘tsunami’ into multiple smaller and manageable ‘waves’, wrote Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, Programme Leader (Infectious

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last week that the COVID-19 outbreak in Singapore is likely to continue for at least a year, unlike SARS which lasted four months here. Programme Leader (Infectious Diseases), Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang elaborates on some key features of the COVID-19 pandemic that may be less well-known and what they mean for how Singapore tackles the outbreak. He wrote: “It is unlikely that the threat from Sars-CoV-2 will end in 2020, and may not entirely be dispelled even if an effective vaccine became available next

For a global take on the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Economic Forum collected insights from academics within leading universities, including Dean, Professor Teo Yik Ying. “Individual responsibility sits at the heart of managing the current situation with COVID-19, as our actions determine whether the transmission chain is successfully halted or regrettably magnified,” said Prof Teo. Read his advice and comments from the deans of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Zhejiang University’s School of Public Health, here: ‘Over-reacting is better than non-reacting’ – academics around the world share

Singapore’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak has been praised by Dr Tedros Adhanom, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, as well as Dr Marc Lipsitch, Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. But can we keep it up if the outbreak gets worse? Based on studies of past outbreaks, Associate Professor Alex Cook, Vice Dean (Research) and Domain Leader (Biostatistics and Modelling), and Assistant Professor Hannah Clapham outline three possible scenarios on how the outbreak and its control may affect our lives in the months ahead. Read

It has been slightly more than a month since Singapore confirmed its first case of COVID-19 infection. While it may feel like a long time, the outbreak is still in its early days, wrote Associate Professor Steven Ooi Peng Lim and Professor Leo Yee Sin. They believe that the situation will get worse before it gets better, and they are confident that Singapore will be successful in overcoming this public health crisis. It ultimately depends not so much on disease duration as on our collective resilience, they wrote. “Sustainability is

The world has seen multiple disease outbreaks in the past two decades, including SARS, H1N1, Ebola, and now the coronavirus that originated from Wuhan in China. Infectious diseases have no respect for borders, and Singapore will always be vulnerable given its population density and that it is a major transportation hub. Associate Professor Jeremy Lim, Co-Director of the Leadership Institute for Global Health Transformation (LIGHT), wrote: “It’s time to get real about the prevalence and risk of infectious diseases. This is the new normal.” As such disease outbreaks become common,