Duke-NUS today launched the Centre for Outbreak Preparedness or COP. The new Centre will improve health security across South and Southeast Asia, by partnering institutions like the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organisation and Singapore-based partners.
“Duke-NUS is proud to contribute to Singapore’s decisive and effective actions to fight COVID-19,” said Duke-NUS Dean Professor Thomas Coffman at the Centre’s launch, which was attended
by some 100 guests from the biomedical and healthcare sector. “And now, as we are emerging from the pandemic, it is important that we remember the lessons we learnt over the past two-plus years and use these to prepare for the next one.”
AT THE LAUNCH OF THE NEW CENTRE, DPM HENG (FRONT ROW, CENTRE) URGED ETERNAL VIGILANCE
Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies Mr Heng Swee Keat, who also attended the launch, added:
“Overall, pandemic preparedness requires eternal vigilance and continuous investment, year in, year out. It requires us to learn from each pandemic and unlearn some past practices. So that when the next one strikes, we are ready.”
The event ended with a panel discussion moderated by The Straits Times Senior Health Correspondent Ms Salma Khalik about how to enhance the region’s capacity to innovate and intervene against future health threats.
THE PANEL DISCUSSED HOW TO ENHANCE THE REGION'S CAPACITY TO INNOVATE AND INTERVENE AGAINST FUTURE HEALTH THREATS
The discussion tied into the Centre’s flagship project, the Asia Pathogen Genomics Initiative (APGI). The APGI — which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — brings together 11 countries in the region and focuses
on genomic surveillance and epidemiology. Its three key operational thrusts are regional roadmap development, national-global alignment and capacity enhancement.
“If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we are interdependent
and that we are strongest when we are working together,” said Professor Paul Pronyk, the director of the Centre for Outbreak Preparedness,
at the launch. “Partnerships between institutions, between countries, between continents are the crux and core mission of COP.”