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In the gargantuan task of contact tracing, countries across the world have deployed their own ways to ensure confirmed COVID-19 infections are easily detected within a person's vicinity.
But perhaps no country has done this better than Singapore with their TraceTogether app and token – the latter is a physical dongle that people carry with them in order to enter public premises and have their visited locations recorded.
Singapore's TraceTogether token. IMAGE: The New Paper
It was primarily designed for use among people who don't own smartphones (and thus, cannot download the app) or for people who would rather use a separate device for contact tracing.
Of course, one can also attribute the country's success to their relatively small population, allowing for much easier handling and monitoring of COVID-19.
However, what the TraceTogether token can't do is make sure people follow COVID-19-related health and safety procedures, like the ever-present need for social distancing.
At Singapore's GEO Connect Asia 2021 event, testing of a new type of dongle that can track if people are keeping one meter apart is underway.
The social distancing dongle. IMAGE: Reuters
It's being used to track whether meeting participants are keeping their distance or not. With the use of Bluetooth technology, the dongle can record information about location, distance, and interaction time between meeting attendees at the two-day tech conference.
It's important to note that the use of this special dongle isn't being forced upon anyone, but it is an option.
All the data collected is uploaded onto a system, where organizers can check if attendees have been abiding by safety protocols. If anyone is found violating the rules, this allows for quick intervention by the organizers themselves.
The dongle's use at this conference is meant to show the world just how ready Singapore is to hold major events, especially with the World Economic Forum (WEF) expected to take place on the island nation in August 2021.
"Once you see what would be made out of this event, leading up to the World Economic Forum ... it's going to be step-by-step, country-by-country, confidence-building exercises," said conference organizer Rupert Owen.
Would you want a dongle like this to go into public rollout? Or should it just be kept at major events?
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