Steward

Fighting COVID-19 Together

COVID-19 is a global pandemic which demands a global response, as no one is safe till everyone is safe.

COVID-19 has impacted economies and livelihoods around the world. Temasek has been playing an active part, marshalling our network, connecting the dots, and underwriting risks. Efforts to support those in need in Singapore and around the world, have been driven by Temasek Foundation.

Our Stay Prepared initiatives are centred on five areas: diagnosis, containment & contact tracing, treatment, protection & prevention and enablement.

Temasek Foundation provided care packs that included items such as hand sanitisers, masks and mouthwash to migrant workers and other priority groups in the community.

Diagnosis

Temasek Foundation worked with healthcare and corporate partners to enhance Singapore’s COVID-19 testing efforts.

Supporting COVID-19 Tests for Essential Workers

We engaged medical, diagnostic and on-site partners, including Parkway Pantai, The Farrer Park Company and OneCare Medical to conduct swab tests for essential workers at venues such as private hospitals and worker dormitories. Pathology Asia Holdings and ParkwayHealth Laboratory were roped in for swab test diagnostics. Temasek staff collaborated with our partners to plan swabbing operations at testing sites.

Temasek Foundation partnered The Farrer Park Company and Parkway Pantai to trial drive-through swab testing tests.

Bringing Swab Tests to the Heartlands

A team from Temasek worked with family doctors and ATC, a local precision engineering company, to develop a lightweight and portable booth that was trialled at some 170 neighbourhood clinics around the island. The booth, which is named COSMO (COVID-19 Swabbing Mobile Booth) SafeSwab Slim, provides an additional layer of protection for healthcare workers as they, and the person being swabbed, stand on opposite sides of the booth panels. We hope that by making these booths available to General Practitioners, more would be comfortable with conducting swab tests. In turn, this would help boost Singapore’s swabbing capacity.

Temasek partnered family doctors and local precision engineering company ATC to develop a booth that safeguards healthcare workers when they conduct swab tests.

Containment & Contact Tracing

We have rolled out various initiatives to curb the spread of the virus.

Transporting Passengers Safely

Fifty vehicles, called the COVID-19 Multi-Passenger Enhanced Transporter (COMET), were retrofitted to transport passengers between places such as hospitals, dormitories and community care facilities. The vehicles are equipped with safety features such as separate compartments for drivers and passengers and a negative air pressure system with a HEPA filter, to minimise the risk of transmission.

Temasek Foundation partnered SMRT Corporation, SBS Transit (SBST), private transport operator Leisure Frontier (LF), Singapore-based engineering firm HOPE Technik, and Sheares Healthcare to retrofit vehicles to safely transport passengers.

Building Recovery and Care Facilities

We worked with the Singapore Government and rallied our portfolio companies such as PSA, Surbana Jurong, SingEx and Sheares Healthcare, and industry partners including Resorts World and Parkway Pantai to rapidly build and manage new care and recovery facilities for COVID-19 patients. This ensured that our local healthcare system would not be strained as the number of COVID-19 cases increased. One example was the Singapore Expo, which was transformed into an 8,000-bed Community Care Facility in four weeks for patients who do not require hospital care.

Temasek rallied our portfolio companies and industry partners to repurpose the Singapore Expo (pictured here) into a COVID-19 medical care facility within four weeks.

Treatment

We enabled the development of novel medical solutions and shared our findings with relevant agencies.

Developing a Potential COVID-19 Drug

Tychan, a Singapore-based Temasek investee company, is conducting the third and final trial for a potential treatment of COVID-19 before it is approved for treatment. Tychan developed the monoclonal antibody, which is an immune system protein known as TY027. The antibody will be tested on some 500 COVID-19 patients. It took Tychan just four months from conceptualisation to conduct clinical trials, accelerating a process that would have typically taken 12 to 18 months.

Temasek investee company Tychan developed the monoclonal antibody that will be tested on some 500 COVID-19 patients.

Boosting Global Supply of Ventilators

Temasek Foundation partnered one of our investee companies, Advanced MedTech (AMTH), to design and manufacture a novel ventilator that can be controlled remotely. The Alpha ventilator is especially suitable for treating patients with infectious diseases, as healthcare workers do not need to be physically beside the equipment to control it. AMTH has received emergency approval from the Singapore Health Sciences Authority and recently filed for approval from the Food and Drug Administration of the United States. When production is fully ramped up, 200 ventilators can be produced monthly, with the ability to scale up depending on market needs.

AMTH’s Director of Research and Development Shadakshari DC is part of the team who worked with Temasek Foundation to design and manufacture a novel ventilator that can be controlled remotely with a computer.

Protection & Prevention

We leveraged our network to source for essential items such as swabbing kits, transport medium and personal protective equipment, and ensure upstream capacity for mask production.

Distributing Reusable Antimicrobial Masks

In conjunction with Temasek’s annual Community Day on June 25, Temasek Foundation launched a nationwide distribution of reusable antimicrobial masks to residents in Singapore. A total of 9.4 million masks were distributed via some 1,200 vending machines strategically located around the island.

Available at all community centres, residents’ committees and bus interchanges, the StayMasked vending machines allowed for convenient and safe collection of the reusable masks.

Distributing Hand Sanitisers

Temasek Foundation’s #BYOBclean hand sanitiser initiative was launched in March to offer free hand sanitisers to all households in Singapore. To encourage all residents to reuse and recycle, they were asked to bring dry and clean used bottles to collect the free hand sanitiser.

Volunteers from the private sector, universities and community groups such as the People’s Association mixed, bottled and distributed the free hand sanitisers as part of the #BYOBclean initiative.

Enablement

Temasek Foundation enabled vulnerable communities in Singapore and abroad to stay resilient in these challenging times by providing assistance and relief.

Extending Help to Overseas Communities

Temasek Foundation has donated ventilators and oxygen support equipment, test kits, hand sanitisers, personal protection equipment, and other essential supplies to some 35 countries to fight the coronavirus. The Foundation also worked with the Singapore Airlines (SIA) and World Food Programme (WFP) to help transport essential medical supplies and other humanitarian items by air to points of need. SIA will transport these supplies via ad hoc chartered flights and freight space in its scheduled services, with flight costs being covered by the Foundation’s contribution of up to US$6.5 million.

Temasek Foundation partnered SIA and WFP to transport essential medical supplies and other humanitarian items by air.

Providing Meals to the Vulnerable

Temasek Foundation, together with our portfolio companies and partners, introduced four programmes to provide meals to people whose lives have been disrupted by the pandemic. Three of the programmes, which are in partnership with Willing Hearts, The Food Bank Singapore and Free Food for All, provided more than 300,000 meals to families and individuals in need. The Foundation also worked with SIA and SATS to provide over 100,000 meals and 11,000 snacks to low-income households.