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SINGAPORE – The TraceTogether contact tracing app will be updated next month to allow tourists to complete SafeEntry registrations at shopping malls and restaurants as Singapore prepares to move to phase three of its reopening.
The application, which is mandatory for foreign visitors, will come with a new function to register and validate their passport numbers during application registration.
The validation will be instantaneous by checking the database of the Immigration Authority and Control Points.
“Just as we need to validate the users’ NRIC (during app registration), we need to verify that the visitor has entered a valid passport number and that they have indeed entered Singapore,” said a spokesperson for Smart Nation and Digital Government. . Office told The Straits Times.
“We hope to complete the passport validation process sometime in December. Visitors will need to update to the latest version of the application,” he added.
With this addition, tourists will be able to scan the SafeEntry QR code using their TraceTogether app. By the end of the year, this will be the only way for them to enter most of the facilities.
The move comes as Singapore gradually reopens its borders to leisure travelers, including those from Hong Kong, Brunei, New Zealand and Vietnam.
There is no QR code scanning feature in the version of the app currently used by tourists, unlike the one available to Singapore citizens and permanent residents.
In the absence of the QR code scanner, tourists have been asked to show their passports and the TraceTogether app on their phones. Venue operators must also manually enter passport details on a computer or mobile device running the SafeEntry (Business) app to record the visit.
Tourists have also been able to use their mobile phone camera to scan the SafeEntry QR code and fill out a web form to enter shopping malls, restaurants and cinemas.
But the web form will be phased out when Singapore switches to a new Covid-19 management tool, SafeEntry from TraceTogether only, for mandatory digital contact tracing.
Similarly, Singaporeans and permanent residents will not be able to use their SingPass mobile app to scan the SafeEntry QR code to enter locations. And site operators will not scan barcodes on the NRICs to allow people in.
The nationwide shift is scheduled to begin at the end of the year to allow Singapore to host more travelers, business activities and social gatherings.
SafeEntry, just for TraceTogether, combines what are now two separate systems: TraceTogether, to identify those who are in close contact with Covid-19 patients; and SafeEntry, which digitally checks visitors in most locations, to determine which facilities people infected with the coronavirus have visited.
Australian citizen Ian Khoo, 33, who is in Singapore for a few months to visit his family, said he hopes to use the new version of the TraceTogether app.
“I am glad that the registration process is speeding up soon,” said Khoo, who works in the Australian banking sector.
You use your phone’s camera to scan the SafeEntry QR code, but soon this will no longer be an option.
He has used his passport to enter places before, but said: “The process of showing the operator of the place my passport and having them record my details holds the queue; it is not as quick and easy as scanning a QR or NRIC code.”
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