Coronavirus: Singapore to expand use of TraceTogether as it opens to events of up to 250 people
- The TraceTogether programme, which tracks who users interact with, will be piloted at events such as exhibitions and conferences
- Move to resume conference activities is aimed at safeguarding jobs in the tourism and events industry, which is among the worst hit by Covid-19
An additional layer of contact tracing is to be introduced so that exhibitions and conferences of up to 250 participants can take place from October.
At present, under a programme called SafeEntry, people must check in online with their names and contact details before entering any building, such as offices, shops or restaurants.
However, the ministry said that people attending events in the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (Mice) industry will now also have to use another programme, called TraceTogether, which uses a mobile application or a token to track who users interact with (defined as coming within two metres for at least 30 minutes).
While TraceTogether is being used by citizens daily on a voluntary basis, it will now be mandatory for Mice events that will resume next month. Previously, it has been compulsory only for foreign workers who have returned to work.
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, minister for foreign affairs and minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative, said the idea was to trial this layering of the two technologies at large events where people might be interacting without taking precautions, such as not wearing masks while eating.
“We want to start to check how effective this programme of combining data from TraceTogether and SafeEntry is before we make decisions on how we progress in the future,” he said.