More than ever before, we were called to rally around each other in 2020. As an activist university, The UWI continued to engage in the search for sustainable solutions for the Caribbean to confront the COVID-19 challenge. Universities are built and resourced to serve their communities and nations, so times like these drew precisely on our academy's purpose. Through science, medicine, engineering and volunteerism, our staff and students are contributing their resources and expertise towards the fight, demonstrating that UWI cares.
Throughout the pandemic, the Task Force emphasised the sense of Caribbean community and solidarity and worked closely with organisations such as CARICOM, CARPHA, CDEMA, PAHO, and The Caribbean Tourism Organisation, as well as individual regional governments to lend their knowledge and resources as they sought the interest of their citizens.
The virologists on the Task Force were networked into global alliances, for example the Global Virology Network (GVN), that monitor and track the evolution of viral pandemics. By contributing genomic sequence data into these global networks, our virologists help monitor mutations or new strains of COVID-19 that may emerge as the virus moves from country to country.
They also created simulated scenarios which allowed for projections of situations that might arise over the course of the pandemic, given certain variables.
The Task Force's discussions did not only surround means of surviving the initial onslaught of the pandemic, but also ways to emerge from it with a clear plan for recovery.
Acting in the public interest with UWI Science at their backs, regional leaders took tough decisions with confidence and courage, thus saving perhaps thousands of lives.
A full website was devoted to information disseminated by the Task Force, through which the collective knowledge and expertise were available to all, with the primary objective being to provide accurate and reliable information through other channels of communication, such as webinars, podcasts, online seminars, weekly bulletins and video tips on a range of topics managed by University Marketing & Communications and UWItv respectively.
Thousands of UWI alumni and members of our Faculties of Medical Sciences across the region provided and continue to provide critical care for COVID-19 patients at hospitals and primary care settings and centres.
Hundreds of medical students from across all our campuses volunteered to provide supplementary support to doctors and nurses. UWI Mona students supported communication activities for the Ministry of Health and Wellness through the Campus Call Centre and the National Emergency Operations Centre.
100+ students in the District Health Visiting programme at UWI St Augustine are doing contact tracing for the Ministry of Health, Trinidad and Tobago.
Nursing Programme staff are working the COVID Hotlines, and overseeing operations of Field Hospitals.
Cave Hill's Department of Social Work staff are lending social care assistance to the elderly, along with UWI Five Islands providing COVID-19 relief to single mothers and the elderly.
Approximately 360 students of The Cave Hill Campus visited Barbadian communities as part of an island-wide COVID-19 data-gathering exercise, Seek & Save.
The National Influenza Centre at The UWI Mona's Department of Microbiology remains an active testing facility for COVID-19. Similarly, to help increase testing capacity in Trinidad and Tobago, The UWI St Augustine handed over the School of Veterinary Medicine's Molecular Biology Laboratory along with additional PCR machines from its Faculty of Science and Technology's Department of Life Sciences to the Ministry of Health for real- time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for COVID-19.
The UWI Cave Hill, in partnership with the Barbados Defence Force and Ministry of Health and Wellness, hosted a Respiratory Short Stay Unit, a field hospital on the premises of its E.R. Waldrond Clinical Skills building at Jemmots Lane. In Trinidad and Tobago, The UWI St Augustine's main campus as well as Couva and Debe facilities all remain in use for COVID-19 patients and quarantined returning nationals.
The Faculty of Medical Sciences at the St Augustine Campus has reviewed the use of drugs for the management of COVID-19 to guide Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Health.
The UWI is part of the World Health Organisation's "Solidarity Trial" to investigate the efficacy of potential treatment drugs.
Researchers and experts from our specialised units and centres are producing models and policy briefs to inform national and regional governments and decision makers.
Studies undertaken to support decisions at local and regional levels include
The Faculties of Engineering at UWI St Augustine and Mona, in collaboration with students, alumni and industry partners, drove national efforts to manufacture ventilators, face shields and other medical equipment to support the COVID-19 response.
Thousands of litres of hand sanitizer were produced daily by The UWI Mona Campus' Doctor of Pharmacy programme in collaboration with National Health Fund and its partners, J. Wray and Nephew Ltd.; Organic Growth Holdings, and Carimed Ltd.
The UWI Cave Hill Campus also produced hand sanitizer for essential workers.
The UWI Open Campus trained more than 2,000 teachers/educators across the region in the use of educational technology for the rapid response delivery of online education.
The Post COVID-19 Road Map to Recovery team comprised UWI Chancellor and other UWI experts and alumni for Trinidad and Tobago. Similarly, in Barbados, Cave Hill staff served on a Jobs and Investment Council to help the government mobilise and catalyse opportunities during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal, Prof. The Most Hon. Eudine Barriteau chaired the Services and the Creative Economy Committee.
The UWI Global Tourism Resilience Centre in Jamaica is leading the recovery of the region's tourism industry beginning with simulations to understand the economic and social impact. From psycho-social and clinical experts to economists and more, a wide range of disciplines and specialists are focused on the Caribbean's rebound from the impact of COVID-19.
A team of researchers from The UWI St. Augustine embarked on a project to analyse coronavirus genomes from infected individuals. The exercise enhances the Caribbean's capacity to identify different lineages of the virus and monitor mutations in order to track the virus' spread, distinguish between local and newly imported cases, and better understand the virus and our immune system's response to it.
Professor Christine Carrington emphasised,"The COVID-19 IMPACT project means that we can now detect and track the progress of SARS-CoV-2 lineages circulating in the region. We've analysed samples from 11 CARPHA member countries and identified 28 distinct SARS-CoV-2 lineages to date. This capacity for genomic surveillance is crucial particularly now that vaccines are being introduced. As we continue to monitor mutations that may be of biological significance, it's important that we continue with our public health interventions so that vaccination can get out ahead of the virus."
The project is funded by a grant from the UWI-Trinidad and Tobago Research, Development and Impact (RDI) Fund. The research team includes investigators from The UWI, Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Health, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the University of Oxford and the University of London.
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