The city-state Singapore is currently facing another wave of COVID-19 infections driven by the Omicron variants, BA.5 and BA.4. Variant BA.2.75 also became a dark horse in the recent COVID-19 pandemic, bringing more unknowns yet to be discovered by experts. Vaccination, especially booster shots are still the key in curbing COVID-19 infections. However, the current available vaccines only targets the original strain and may be less effective against the new variants. Waning immunity after a certain period of vaccination also further exacerbates the uncertainties. The million-dollar question remains: how do we increase the confidence to live with COVID-19?

Such a tool to specifically assess immune status post vaccination is commercially available in Singapore and 80 other countries globally. From early 2020, GenScript launched the first-in-the-world SARS-CoV-2 serology test cPass™ to detect neutralising antibodies. The inventor, Prof Wang Linfa who is the infectious diseases expert from Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore said, “With the Omicron wave, cPass™ can adapt to measure neutralising antibodies against new variants to allow vaccine manufacturers to upgrade to 2nd generation vaccine against new variants or 3rd generation pan-sarbecovirus vaccine. We are leveraging the cPass™ technology in many epidemiology studies to achieve a scale that could not have been achieved using any traditional test platforms.” 

Singapore offers a conducive and thriving R&D community which consistently attracts private funding sources to invest in the city-state. With that, we have achieved a healthy growth in the biomedical sector. AcroMeta Group specializes in laboratory design and construction business, the Group has secured a stable business portfolio despite the uncertainties during the COVID-19 pandemic. To mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on construction processes, AcroMeta management team decided to on-board cPass™ test as a corporate testing in addition to the government mandate measures. Employees of AcroMeta were able to make an informed decision to take up booster jab according to their cPass™ test results. Dr. Leong Hoe Nam, infectious disease specialist at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital said, “I witnessed the success of cPass™, one of Singapore’s greatest invention.  cPass™ helped my patients to make informed decision on booster jab. Corporate cPass™ test is adopted by companies to demystify COVID-19 and return to workplace”.

There is a variation in cPass™ neutralizing antibody level among AcroMeta staff who took the test. Individuals with lower cPass™ test value could go for an early booster shot when government recommends so. Those with a low cPass™ test value could choose to work from home temporarily and refrain from visiting crowded places before they were eligible to receive booster shot. Mr. Lim Say Chin, the CEO of AcroMeta joined the cPass™ campaign and said “cPass™ became our chosen weapon to mitigate construction delays. We are impressed that cPass™ is available in more than 2000 clinics islandwide”. 

Dr. Yanfeng Li, head of GenScript Singapore manufacturing, said, “We are proud to see continued clinical adoption of cPass™ across the region, companies like Acrometa can benefit from cPass™ as a strategy to live and work amid COVID-19. Personally, I am taking the cPass™ test every 2 months to monitor my immune status, a lower cPass™ value means  time to get my booster shot.”