TraceTogether and SafeEntry will continue to be used until the authorities are certain that Covid-19 is “no longer epidemic”, said Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary, even as people are concerned that the apps aren’t practical in some places.
Dr Janil told Parliament on Thursday (Mar 3) that these technologies enable verification checks for entry into venues or activities where such measures are enforced. They are necessary to protect people who are unvaccinated, who are at greater risk of developing severe disease.
“We aim to keep rules and requirements simple, and we regularly review the need for these. We will continue to rationalise and simplify our safe management measures,” he said in response to Workers’ PArty MP Leon Perera (Aljunied GRC).
Mr Perera pointed out that these checks create compliance burdens for businesses and iasked what criteria the Health Ministry applied in phasing them out.
Dr Janil pointed out that the two technologies helped authorities issue health risk warnings and notices quickly, thus keeping fatalities low and slowing down Covid-19 transmission by enabling people to self-isolate or seek medical assistance promptly.
It is still too early to determine the approach to phasing out these systems and decide when they would no longer be needed, he said,.
“We need to wait until we no longer need vaccination-differentiated measures.”
“We need to wait until we’re quite sure that the pandemic and Covid-19 is no longer epidemic but endemic, and we have not reached that point yet,” he added.
Dr Janil cited a British study that found automated contact tracing saves lives and prevents Covid-19 cases. He noted that there is “every reason to believe the same is true here in Singapore.”
Until Singapore reaches the point where the virus is endemic, said Dr Janil, the easiest, cheapest and least burdensome way for businesses to enforce Covid-19 measures is to continue using the two technologies.
Many in the online community think that maintaining these systems may be a waste of resources.
“Can understand the checking of vaccine status at makan places, but why need safe entry into supermarket? Everyone is masked there,” said one concerned individual..
Another netizen questioned the usefulness of the apps. “Does it really help in preventing the spread further? Now all this TT and SafeEntry are useless. Other countries already have stopped implementing all this and restrictions. The population is much more than our and have even more cases, and yet they can do it without fears.” /TISG
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