The app is enabled to identify people who are close within 2m for at least 30 minutes to coronavirus patients
SINGAPORE| On Friday, a contact-tracing smartphone app has been unfolded to allow the local authorities to quickly examine people who are confirmed cases of coronavirus cases.
Dubbed TraceTogether, the app is enabled to identify people who are close within 2m for at least 30 minutes to coronavirus patients. This app uses wireless Bluetooth technology. The developers said this app uses Bluetooth technology for the detection of patients to the Government Technology Agency and the Ministry of Health, on Friday.
The developers said, “This is especially useful in cases where the infected persons do not know everyone whom they had been in close proximity with for an extended duration”.
The App is not compulsory to install. But whose who use it have to turn on their Bluetooth and tracing will be easy for the one. They also need to enable push notifications and location permissions in the app, which is available on the Apple App Store or the Google Play store.
This will be helpful for the MOH to quickly identify the patient and also the one who is in close contact with that one person. Also to help curb the spread of coronavirus.
On its website, TraceTogether’s developers said the app is meant to complement current contact-tracing methods and allow for the identification of people who were in close proximity with an infected person more efficiently. There is currently no target for the number of users for the app.
On Friday, when the app was launched the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO) said users have to give explicit consent to participate in TraceTogether, and for their mobile number and data to be used for contact tracing.
SNDGO said, “When requested by MOH, users can send their TraceTogether logs to facilitate the contact tracing process. Up to that point, the authorities, including MOH and GovTech, have no knowledge of the user’s TraceTogether data”.
Official contact tracers will provide a code that users can match with a corresponding verification code on their app. Once authenticated, users will be given a PIN that allows submission of logs when entered. Official contact tracers will also not ask for any personal financial details or request for the transfer of money over the phone.
When the contact tracer calls the user and asks to provide the data if the user denied they will be booked under the Infectious Diseases Act. On its website, TraceTogether developers said the app will not drain the battery. The only data that is collected by the Government through this app is the user’s mobile number, which is kept so that MOH can contact users quickly if they were in close proximity with an infected case.
The app also does not collect or use users’ location data, but only records who they might have been close to. Similar apps have been said to be successful in helping to turn the tide against the coronavirus in some countries.
In highly-connected South Korea, for instance, people know quickly when a new coronavirus case is found in their neighbourhood through a government alert sent to their mobile phones. This alert includes details such as the new patient’s age, gender and travel history. The World Health Organisation and experts said that the country’s extensive tracing, testing and isolation measures have helped to significantly reduce the virus’s spread. Over the past two weeks, the number of new cases being reported daily has dropped dramatically, from a peak of 909 cases announced on Feb 29 to 74 on March 16.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
