UWI head: We warned about covid19 reaching region

Vice-Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles has said UWI was ahead of the covid19 outbreak last year and was able to warn regional governments of its arrival in the Caribbean.

Prof Beckles was speaking at the annual meeting of the University Council, where he presented his report on the past academic year.

He said during the outbreak in Wuhan, China, in 2019, the university kept in touch with the UWI-China Institute of Information Technology (UWI-CIIT) in Suzhou, one of its eight international centres, collecting information. He said the university decided to warn governments, as it felt it was only a matter of time before the virus breached Caribbean borders.

“In January, two months before its arrival, we had already established a task force (and) engaged ministries of health and governments to give our fullest support as they rolled out national health policies.”

He said the university was able to become a part of the network of governments and medical practitioners which led to lives being saved.

“When I see the circumstances north of us, and our government was (still) able to contain this virus…UWI was at the fore to help save lives. Because of how we responded, 2020 was our finest hour.”

He said UWI had a similar response in St Vincent and the Grenadines when the La Soufriere volcano became active.

“When we received news of tremors at Christmas of 2020, we dispatched a team from the seismic centre to go and provide information and strategy so we would be ready to deal with it.”

He said three months of hard work led to the science the government of SVG needed to move its people out of harm's way and the move saved lives.

Beckles said the university is continuing its expansion to collaborate with other international institutions. In addition to the UWI-CIIT, the university has seven other centres, in New York; Lagos and Johannesburg in Africa; Canada; Havana in Cuba; Coventry in England; and Glasgow in Scotland.

He said two other centres are in the making in the European Union and Bogota, Colombia.

“The UWI system is a global enterprise rooted in the Caribbean.”

Beckles said UWI has been commercialising its brand on a global scale and the university is in demand.

“To do this, we have reached out to donors of the world to facilitate our global potential…We are going to be at the table of discussion with international donors (and) multinational institutions; UWI is going to be in the room.”