Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary said that the use of the TraceTogether app or token will be made compulsory for attendees of large gatherings and higher-risk activities.
"If we have more than 75 per cent of our population on the programme, the confidence that we have for using this tool for rapid and effective contact tracing is transformative," Janil said at a pop-up TraceTogether booth at Bedok Mall on Oct. 4, reported The Straits Times.
While it is unclear at the moment what specific gatherings and high-risk activities this mandate will apply to, the rule has been a consideration for a while now as Singapore opens up.
Currently, only the use of Safe Entry has been made compulsory as part of Safe Management Measures.
Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative Vivian Balakrishnan said on Sep. 9 that there would be a pilot scheme at certain venues that would require people to use either the TraceTogether token or app to check-in.
The distribution started in the Jalan Besar and Tanjong Pagar regions, where there is a higher concentration of elderly individuals.
Easier to collect tokens
According to a factsheet by SmartNation, the SmartNation and Digital Government Group (SNDGG) will set-up roving mobile booths so that the public can pick up the tokens, or learn how to use the app more conveniently.
Since the distribution started on Sep. 14, more than 100,000 TraceTogether Tokens have been collected at community centres and clubs.
From Oct. 1, the distribution exercise will also be expanded to community centres in the Ang Mo Kio, Bishan, Toa Payoh, and Sengkang regions.
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Top image from Janil Puthucheary/Facebook.