30, 2020, even before one case was prevalent in the Caribbean region, testament to the proactive commitment of the university to be a source of trusted and reliable public information. Daily Monitoring The George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre (GA-CDRC) provided daily surveillance and modelling to support evidence-based decision- making in the Caribbean. The reports compiled information taken from 20 territories within the region. Data which included confirmed COVID-19 cases, deaths, and outbreak growth rates for fourteen CARICOM countries and six UK Overseas Territories, as well as regional heat map models were regularly presented to various meetings of CARICOM Heads of Government and other agencies to model the epidemic and project healthcare and other emergency response needs. Daily reports were also made available to the public online via the Task Force website. Frontline clinical care 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. Medical students volunteer 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.
Testing 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. Field hospitals 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.
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.
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