Singapore’s TraceTogether app halved coronavirus contact-tracing time, says engineer
- The app has cut contact-tracing from four days to two, the lead engineer says
- Singapore’s success in managing its Covid-19 outbreak led to it being selected to host next year’s World Economic Forum
The TraceTogether program, which includes a mobile app and token, now covers 3.4 million users, about 60 per cent of Singapore’s population, according to Jason Bay, the senior director who leads the project team at the Government Technology Agency.
While TraceTogether does not generate as comprehensive a set of contacts as manual tracing, more than 10 per cent of contacts identified turned positive during quarantine, showing the technology’s potential, Bay said at a conference.
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“When we set out to build TraceTogether, we saw an opportunity to leverage a widely-used consumer technology like Bluetooth to make a difference,” Bay said on Tuesday.
“Having said that, the biggest challenges in tech are really technical. We were using Bluetooth in an unfamiliar manner, and you don’t know how the technology would evolve and mature.”
Singapore’s easing of restrictions hinges on higher usage of contact-tracing app
Singapore claimed to be among the first countries to roll out a national contact-tracing app using Bluetooth earlier this year, drawing attention from other states trying to battle the pandemic.
A number of nations from France to the US also launched apps, though in most places tech failed to deliver.