If you’re reading this, I hope you’re either at home or are outside to carry out essential services or errands.
Lest you’ve been hiding some kind of anti-news rock, you would be aware that we are currently more than a week into our circuit breaker period which began on 7 April.
We’re constantly being told to stay at home as much as possible but in the event that we do go outside, an app called TraceTogether was launched to ease contact tracing efforts.
The good news is that people have been downloading it.
The bad news is that people aren’t turning it on.
People Are Downloading TraceTogether But Many Are Not Turning It On
Sounds great, doesn’t it? An app that can help out with contact tracing efforts should prove useful to prevent further spread of the coronavirus.
However, there seems to be just one glaring problem, not everyone has switched it on even though they’ve downloaded it.
Minister Gan Kim Yong acknowledged during a news conference that there has been an increase in downloads of the app, however, the number of people who are turning it on is still “quite low”.
He also added that for this app to prove effective, “we need a significant portion of Singaporeans to turn it on”.
“If only a small portion of Singaporeans have turned it on and the rest have not then when we want to trace, we would not have a significant number of contacts.”
“We are still in the process of promoting this app and we want to encourage Singaporeans to turn it on for as long as possible especially when you need to go out.”
More About TraceTogether
Government Technology Agency (GovTech) has collaborated with the Ministry of Health (MOH) to develop a mobile app named TraceTogether.
It was launched on 20 March 2020 and aimed to support ongoing contact tracing efforts in a bid to help contact tracing efforts to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
It works by exchanging short-distance Bluetooth signals between phones to detect other users of the app who are in close proximity.
How To Turn It On
Step 1. Firstly, download the TraceTogether app or go to www.tracetogether.gov.sg.
Step 2. Enter your Singapore-registered mobile number
Step 3. Provide consent to register your number with TraceTogether and consent to share it with MOH if you are identified as either a confirmed COVID-19 case or in close contact with one.
Step 4. Turn on Bluetooth and enable the necessary permissions for TraceTogether to function. Turn on push notifications so that you can be notified just in case your Bluetooth is switched off unintentionally.
And if you’ve downloaded the TraceTogether app to save humanity, why not also download the Goody Feed to save your insanity? We’ve got app-exclusive easy-to-digest articles that are both informative and entertaining.