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image courtesy of Information Services Department, HKSAR Government Contributing to Decision-making The expertise of HKUMed scholars has been sought by local and international organisations throughout the year. Key highlights include: » Professor Gabriel Leung, Dean of Medicine, and Professor Yuen Kwok-yung were appointed to the 25-member World Health Organization (WHO)-China Joint Mission to the Mainland, which visited five cities over two weeks in February to assess the state of the epidemic there and the effectiveness of its response. » Professor Leung and Professor Yuen have also been appointed members of the Chinese National Experts Group. » Professor Leung co-convenes the WHO research group on the epidemiology of COVID-19. » Professor Leung has provided expert input to the governments of Canada, Chile, Malta, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and the UK, as well as supranational agencies including the Asian Development Bank, Bank of International Settlements and WHO. » Professor Leung, Professor Yuen, and Professor Keiji Fukuda of the School of Public Health have all been appointed to the Hong Kong government’s four-member expert advisory group on COVID-19. » Professor Yuen has inspected sites of COVID-19 outbreaks in Hong Kong with the Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HA) more than 10 times, including the Princess Diamond cruise ship, markets, restaurants, bars, gyms, residential estates, elderly homes, and hospitals. » Professor Ivan Hung Fan-ngai was involved in designing the treatment and discharge protocol for COVID-19 patients in all HA hospitals. He was also involved in setting up the admission, monitoring and discharge protocol for the Asia World-Expo (AWE) Community Hospital. He and his team also worked with other infectious diseases specialists to provide a consultation service to the AWE team. » Professor Malik Peiris and Professor Leo Poon helped the HA to establish evidence- based patient discharge criteria. » Professor Peiris and Professor Poon also served as WHO experts in advising laboratory diagnosis of COVID-19. 01 Professor Gabriel Leung joined a COVID-19 press conference held by the Hong Kong SAR Government on January 25, 2020. 02 Professor Yuen Kwok- yung visited wet markets in Hung Hom and To Kwa Wan after several people who contracted COVID-19 were linked to these facilities. 01 02 HKUMed scholars helped to devise Hong Kong’s first makeshift COVID-19 hospital, located at AsiaWorld-Expo, to treat patients aged 18 to 60, except those in an unstable or severe condition. photo courtesy of Information Services Department, HKSAR Government As of 30/10/2020 22