The International Webinar on COVID19 response was organised by the Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Medical Association. The expert panel presented a range of views from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and Australia.
The webinar was developed at short notice and had over 1000 participants. It provides excellent insights to the different approaches between countries (including political and governmental approaches), and provides evidence that Europe, the UK and the USA contributed to the second wave in Hong Kong and Singapore as asymptomatic international students returned from those countries bring the virus back with them. Hong Kong data indicated that 45% of individuals who contracted COVID contracted it from someone who was asymptomatic.
There substantial discussion on the process of how to remove the social restrictions and recognition of how difficult that will be if you do not have continued support from the population. The role of behaviour change and the need for health promotions experience in communication during stages of crisis are highlighted.
The speakers from Hong Kong and Singapore provide some insight as to when and how they might ease restrictions and given they have also experienced second waves of infection their insight is worth considering.
The news of the webinar was also published on the Sri Lanka’s Daily FT news paper.
