Public health policy veteran Vernon Lee to lead new Singapore communicable diseases agency
Professor Vernon Lee will relinquish his role as executive director of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases to head the Communicable Diseases Agency, which will be established on Apr 1.
Professor Vernon Lee will take on the role of chief executive of the Communicable Diseases Agency, a new statutory board under the Ministry of Health (MOH), on Apr 1, 2025. (Photo: MOH)
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SINGAPORE: A new agency to detect, prevent and control infectious diseases in Singapore will be set up on Apr 1, with Professor Vernon Lee taking charge of it as its chief executive.
The Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA) will be a statutory board under the Ministry of Health (MOH) and will consolidate public health functions previously distributed under MOH headquarters, the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and the Health Promotion Board under one agency.
In a press release on Thursday (Feb 13), MOH said that CDA will have five key areas of focus: "Prevent", "prepare", "detect", "respond" and "enable".
The new agency will "allow the government to quickly respond to disease outbreaks as one concerted public health effort, and play a pivotal role in safeguarding Singapore from infectious disease threats", said MOH.
Prof Lee will begin his tenure as chief executive officer of CDA on Apr 1, and will relinquish his current role as executive director of NCID on the same day.
He has over two decades of experience in public health policy and infectious diseases management, having contributed to Singapore's response to the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak, the 2009 influenza pandemic, the 2016 Zika outbreak and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.
He supported the multi-ministry task force and various government agencies tackling the COVID-19 pandemic in various ways, such as developing contact tracing and quarantine systems, as well as community and vaccination-differentiated safe management measures.
He also set up the Biodefence Centre with the Singapore Armed Forces, formulating preparedness and response plans to protect servicemen and women from infectious disease threats.
On the global front, Prof Lee was seconded twice to the World Health Organization, once to its Indonesia office from 2007 to 2008 and later to its headquarters in Geneva from 2010 to 2012, to work on disease preparedness and response initiatives.
FIVE KEY FOCUS AREAS OF CDA
CDA will work on preventing disease spread through public education, vaccination policies and infection prevention and control measures.
It will also build readiness for infectious disease crises by leading and coordinating public health preparedness efforts, as well as safeguarding national interests such as vaccine access.
It will further develop surveillance capabilities to detect diseases, including by using data analytics and artificial intelligence to analyse large volumes of data.
The agency will also investigate and respond to cases of infectious diseases, issue policy and scientific recommendations and execute public health and social measures during pandemics.
To enable these functions, it will conduct and coordinate public health research and translate the findings into policies, as well as engage in international cooperation to swiftly respond to evolving disease situations around the world.
The agency was first mooted by Health Minister Ong Ye Kung in March 2023 during the COVID-19 White Paper debate, and a Bill setting out the legislative framework for its establishment was passed in parliament in January.
