Single TraceTogether check-in soon to eliminate multiple SafeEntry check-ins

Singapore – Once you check into a shopping mall with your Trace Together app or token, you won’t need to check into individual stores. SafeEntry check-ins at individual stores within the same mall will soon be unnecessary, said Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean.

A single check-in with either the TraceTogether app or token will suffice, he stated in a written parliamentary reply on Monday (Feb 1).

Mr Teo noted that it was currently mandatory for people to conduct SafeEntry check-ins at venues with high visitorship or high transmission risks such as malls and workplaces.

Once they enter, visitors have to repeat the process at individual stores within the same venue.

But now the Government plans to implement the use of TraceTogether-only SafeEntry in such areas. So a single check-in through the TraceTogether app or token will suffice.

“For example, after checking into a mall via TraceTogether-only SafeEntry, a customer would no longer need to check in to larger retail stores and supermarkets inside the mall,” said Mr Teo, according to a straitstimes.com report.

The exceptions to this rule will be establishments where the transmission risk is higher due to people sitting or standing closer to one another for extended periods and where they may remove their face masks for legitimate reasons such as dining at food and beverage outlets or exercising in a gym.

More than 20,000 venues have begun accepting TraceTogether token check-ins and are ready to implement the TraceTogether-only SafeEntry, added Mr Teo.

Education Minister Lawrence Wong said on Jan 4 that more than 4.2 million people, or 78 per cent of Singapore residents, were using the TraceTogether app or token. “Only after everyone has had a chance to collect a (TraceTogether) token in their constituencies and a reasonable period of national distribution is achieved would TraceTogether-only SafeEntry be implemented,” said the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office in a straitstimes.com report.

“We are working on potential solutions that would make it more convenient for public-facing businesses to enable the checking-in of TraceTogether tokens and TraceTogether-only SafeEntry. Details will be announced later,” said Mr Teo./TISG

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PSP’s Francis Yuen says Vivian Balakrishnan having “overlooked” the CPC with regards to TraceTogether is “quite disappointing”