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Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Risk Mitigation
News article4 September 2020ManilaJoint Research Centre

EU CBRN CoE Webinar Series on COVID-19: “The Singapore Experience”

The Regional Secretariat for South East Asia (SEA) of the EU CBRN CoE Initiative hosted its eighth webinar in the COVID-19 series, focused on sharing knowledge and experience.

EU CBRN COE SEA Singapore Experience backdrop
Joint Research Centre

The webinar entitled “COVID-19: The Singapore Experience” was opened by Mr. Florentino Manalastas Jr., Head of the CBRN CoE Regional Secretariat for SEA and Officer in Charge of the Anti-Terrorism Council-Program Management Center of the Philippines.

Dr. Alexander Hamilton, CBRN CoE Regional Coordinator for South East Asia, United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), introduced the guest speaker. Dr. Matthias Maiwald, Senior Consultant and the Head of Service, Microbiology, KK Women's and Children's Hospital in Singapore and Adjunct Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore, delivered a candid and comprehensive presentation on Singapore’s experience handling COVID-19. His presentation considered lessons learned from past infectious disease outbreaks, such as SARS, followed by a detailed account of Singapore’s response to COVID-19.

Specific topics covered in Dr. Maiwald's presentation included the identification of the first imported case of COVID-19 to Singapore, scaling-up diagnostic testing, biosafety practices adopted by hospital staff, and successes and challenges associated with controlling the spread of the virus, including efforts to prevent the spread of infection in public places and using technologies to assist with contact tracing.

The webinar was attended by biological experts from across SEA, as well as representatives from the EU, INTERPOL, the World Health Organization (WHO), and other international organisations and partners.

Details

Publication date
4 September 2020
Author
Joint Research Centre
Location
Manila