Back to work? Not without a check-in app, immunity passport

A file photo of Singapore’s contact-tracing smartphone app TraceTogether. Countries and businesses are mandating technologies as people return to work and begin to travel, with apps, scanners, check-in systems, and so-called immunity passports. — AFP

BANGKOK: To go anywhere in Singapore these days, Joni Sng needs mobile phone apps and other technologies – a QR code to enter shops, a digital map to see how crowded a mall or park is, and a tracker to show if she was near someone infected with the coronavirus.

For the roughly 5.6 million people in Singapore, these actions are routine as the government eases restrictions placed to contain the spread of the disease.