Dialoguepk

Tracing the problems with Singapore’s COVID-19 app 9 May 2020 Author: Howard Lee, Murdoch University The Singapore government won international acclaim for its deft handling of the COVID-19 crisis in its early months. The country was  praised  for its ability to activate an efficient contact tracing system to track down possible cases and implement strict quarantine measures to reduce community infection. The initial low rate of infection, coupled with the quick closure of borders to COVID-19 hotspots around the world, prompted Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to declare that the virus was  under control  in Singapore. He also elevated Singapore as a  model  for other nations to follow. The government introduced ‘TraceTogether’, a mobile phone app developed by the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) to enhance contract tracing efforts. It used what the government dubbed the ‘ bluetrace protocol ’ — technology leveraging the Bluetooth feature on mobile phones to track proxi