Singapore to Monitor Workers at Dorms With Contact-Trace Tokens

(Bloomberg) -- Singapore will distribute more than 450,000 contact-tracing devices to migrant and local workers in dormitories to monitor the spread of the coronavirus, said the country’s manpower ministry.

The country has rolled out the tokens to complement the tracing phone app to reach the maximum number of residents. With a goal of eventually reaching 100% of the population, Singapore’s tracing program is among the most ambitious in the world. Efforts by many countries to use mobile apps to fight the virus have mostly stalled or have been abandoned amid dismal take-up rates and privacy concerns.

Workers in the dorms, many of them immigrants from India, Bangladash and Malaysia, have accounted for the vast majority of the almost 58,000 cases in the city state.

More details:

• Tokens will also be given to workers in the construction, shipyard and process sectors
• Agencies will evaluate how the tokens perform in rugged environments
• Data can be extracted from the tokens to assess the extent that workers mingle, in order for preventive measures to be taken
• READ: Singapore Says Dorm Infections Lingering As Some Not Exposed

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