Singapore plans to give all citizens virus-tracing wearables

Singapore plans to give each of its 5.7 million residents a wearable device that will identify people who had interacted with carriers of coronavirus. 

The tiny city-state, with one of the highest COVID-19 cases in Asia, is one of many countries trying to use technology to allow them to safely reopen their economies.

Vivian Balakrishnan, the minister in charge of the city-state's smart nation initiative, said last Friday that Singapore will soon roll out the device, and "may then distribute it to everyone in Singapore,". The device does not depend on a smartphone.

The government did not specify whether carrying the device would be mandatory.

Earlier, the government's TraceTogether app encountered problems, especially on Apple devices where its operating system suspends Bluetooth scanning when the app runs in the background. Repeated discussions with Apple failed to resolve the problem.