Contact Tracing Tokens in Schools, Aims to Distribute 5 Million Tokens by February 2021

Schools in Singapore will now be distributing the TraceTogether or TT tokens to all students. This is a way that they can participate in the national contact tracing program, according to Vivian Balakrishnan, the Minister-in-Charge of the Smart Nation Initiative.

Singapore's contact tracing program

The program will complement the efforts to give out the tokens in community club around the island, and Dr. Balakrishnan added that the government wants to distribute around 5 million tokens by the end of February 2021.

According to The Strait Times, Dr. Balakrishnan confirmed the plan that tokens will be distributed through the schools and those with children or students do not need to worry. He also said that people do not need to go to the community clubs just to get the tokens because it can be collected in school in due time.

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Dr. Balakrishnan talked about the program on December 23 to reporters on the sidelines of a token distribution even at Kampong Kembangan Community Club in Eunos.

In a statement released on December 23, the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group or SNDGG said that there will be more details on the program that will be shared in the future, and that children do not need to have their TT when the school reopens in 2021.

Since September, the government have been distributing the tokens in community clubs. Since October, they have been distributed one at a time in order to prevent long lines from forming and break the social distancing protocol.

Also, Dr Balakrishnan added that the government has increased its order for the tokens and that by the end of February 2021, they would have handed out at least 5 million tokens.

Contact tracing app

So how does the token work? The TraceTogether app or TT app and the TT token work by exchanging short-distance Bluetooth signals with other TT apps or TT tokens that are nearby. The proximity data is encrypted and is stored for 25 days before being deleted automatically, and this allows fast contact tracing.

Dr Balakrishnan also talked about how there are now different designs of TT tokens that are being distributed, and added that aside from how the tokens look, they basically function the same.

Currently, there are four different designs of the token available and are being distributed. He added that the design for the tokens have been changing all based on the improvements and adjustments that have been made to them.

However, he stressed that all of the four tokens work the same way, and that it does not matter which one people use and people could only choose them based on what design they want.

Dr Balakrishnan said that they wanted the TT tokens to last for at least 6 to 9 months, which is why they catered for quite a lot of space for longer battery life, especially looking at the initial designs.

Along the way, however, they have continued to reiterate the design and that is why today, there are four different designs, but they are all fully functional and they all have the same features.