Dear Members of the University Alliance of the Silk Road,
It is with a heavy heart that I am writing to express our concern and share our recent tackling measures towards the COVID-19 pandemic which continues to wreak havoc around the world. The pandemic poses unprecedented challenges for all of us, all sectors, across continents and regions. It has therefore become all the more important for us to stay connected and work together to fight this common enemy.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong has been devoting every effort to react, adapt and innovate to ensure the safety and well-being of our members, while fulfilling our primary mission to teach, research and serve the community. An Emergency Response Group led by myself was established in January 2020 to direct and coordinate the University's efforts to monitor and tackle the threat of COVID-19. A series ofresponse measures were introduced to address almost every aspect of the University, ranging from campus infection control guidelines, full-scale online teaching, research and consultancy services, as well as community services. The University has set up a one-stop information portal "Act Together Against COVID-19" (https://againstcovid19.cuhk.edu.hk/) to provide constant and timely updates to university members and the general public.
To help the wider community combat the novel coronavirus, CUHK researchers are contributing their academic expertise in Medicine, Science, Social Science as well as Arts and Humanities. To highlight, our Faculty of Medicine has developed a non-invasive stool test to screen for possible COVID-19 cases and is now offering it for free for asymptomatic children arriving at the Hong Kong International Airport with an aim to identify early cases. While the campus is quiet, we are actively extending our reach to the local and international community via means of interactive knowledge-sharing. We launched the "Class Acts" CUHK Online Talk Series (https://againstcovid19.cuhk.edu.hk/class-acts-online-talk/) covering a wide range of topics. We have also engaged our faculty members, students and alumni to join efforts in serving the community. Since February, they have produced and distributed thousands of litres of sanitizing hand rub solutions to the elderly and other underprivileged groups. We have continued to do our utmost to tackle challenges of the epidemic.
All these efforts required extensive planning, hard work and collaboration from every member of the University. Over the past months, I have continued to witness the devotion, resilience, kindness and compassion of our members in coping with the sweeping changes together.
All members of UASR are our treasured partners in our efforts to promote global education and research excellence. I would like to send my warmest regards, and also on behalf of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, to all of you. In such trying times, the world needs our courage,creativity and intelligence to beat the virus. I look forward to working with you to tackle and overcome this unprecedented challenge.
May I wish all of you good health as we fight against the pandemic!
All the best,
Rocky S Tuan
