 Data collection through syndromic surveillance provides a continuous stream of information which offers real-time insights into the health of a population, allowing health authorities to promptly detect and respond to outbreaks and new and emerging health threats. Health threat, in a most recent case, would be the COVID-19 epidemic which caused immense pressure on health systems globally. In this case, syndromic surveillance aided in monitoring the effectiveness of public health interventions. On January 29th, the Ministry of Health, Wellness and elderly affairs began training sessions on communicable diseases and syndromic surveillance. The session was invigilated by CAFA's technical officer for infectious disease Dr. Maurice Frank and covered many areas including the delivery of key messages to the public. With the diseases all of them on the tables right now, the health education, how are we reaching the population? What is the target population that we're aiming to get to? So sometimes we just put out a message and whoever receives the message receives it. So health education, health promotion, they develop a message, they say okay here you go and then I always have to say all the persons health literate. So we say that we have a high literacy level does not mean someone is health literate of course persons can read does not mean that they can understand the scientific jargon that we're putting out there. The sessions were interactive and required the participants to create their own surveillance system. Dr. Frank touched on a number of thought provoking aspects relating to national surveillance methods. We are living in a globalized world. Whether we pay attention to it or not it is so easy for disease to just walk right into St. Lucia from Martinique. There's a ferry between Martinique and St. Lucia so I just came from France I went to Martinique then I come here. So what is the role of Port Health? What is the role of isolation at the port? So we have to consider the health security aspect. What is happening on the grand scheme and the picture of St. Lucia's health system? So when you're working through the scenarios don't just think in terms of a clinical setting consider what is happening for the whole country and who is needed for an outbreak response who's needed for surveillance. From 2014 St. Lucia has had an established syndromic surveillance system set up at 36 reporting sites throughout the island. This allowed for the detection of the Zika outbreak in 2016 and any changes in disease patterns which may appear throughout the year. Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic allowed for increased capacity it also highlighted the need for continuous training and retraining of healthcare personnel so as to improve the country's preparedness to respond to new and emerging diseases. For the communication unit of the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Early Affairs I'm St. Justin