Singapore contract trace app is opt-in ‘as long as possible’

Singapore's new contact-tracing smarthphone app called TraceTogether has been rolled out as a preventive measure against the Covid-19 coronavirus in the country. About 1.5 million residents have downloaded the app, or between 20% and 25% of the city-state’s population, Balakrishnan said. — AFP

Singapore’s contact-tracing phone app, Trace Together, will remain voluntary for “as long as possible”, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said in an interview with Sky News Australia.

"It is a hybrid system based on public support, keeping public trust, and maintaining privacy,” Balakrishnan said, according to the ministry’s transcript of the interview published online Friday. "I think it is very important to have those features, because otherwise contact tracing will not work.”