The UWI Regional Headquarters Jamaica. Friday, February 28, 2020.

Once again, The University of the West Indies (The UWI) is launching a Task Force to assist with the mobilisation of the region’s public health providers to deal with an incoming virus. Four years ago, the Zika virus triggered the response; today it is COVID-19.

Again, the Task
Force will be chaired by The UWI’s Professor Clive Landis, Pro
Vice-Chancellor for Undergraduate Studies and former Director of the
George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre, who has considerable
experience in the field of Caribbean public health.

The University
is currently delivering a software engineering degree programme at
its joint Institute in Suzhou, China, and has a large registered
cohort of Caribbean students. It is engaged directly with public
health officials in Suzhou, Caribbean diplomatic corps in Beijing,
and the leadership of its partner university, the Global Institute
for Software Engineering (GIST).

Vice-Chancellor
of The UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles stated, “Against the
background of dealing with its internal affairs in China, The UWI has
been working in close collaboration with regional health ministries
and the relevant CARICOM agencies.” The purpose, he added, is to
“Provide the necessary scientific data on the virus and to work
with government colleagues in creating an effective communications
strategy for the region.” He concluded saying, “The Task Force
will have a critical role to play in solutions building in the
immediate future”.

Membership of
the Task Force is drawn from the regional UWI medical faculties and
external experts experienced in the laboratory and field deployment
of an active scientific approach.

Commenting on the
work of the Task Force, Professor Landis stated, “It is right that
The UWI should deploy its full expertise as a public academy to help
Caribbean communities cope at this instance of the COVID-19 epidemic.
The primary emphasis of the
COVID-19 Task Force will be to provide accurate and reliable
information through UWItv
and other channels of communication. Armed with good information and
strong partnerships we will get through this viral outbreak as we did
for ‘swine flu’, Chikungunya and Zika before it.”