Assessing TraceTogether's Contribution to COVID-19 Contact Tracing, Total Programme Cost and Lessons for Future Digital Tracing
Ministry of HealthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns MP Kenneth Tiong Boon Kiat’s inquiry regarding the effectiveness of TraceTogether in identifying COVID-19 cases, its total cost, and whether a retrospective cost-effectiveness evaluation will be published. Minister Ong Ye Kung responded that the programme facilitated approximately 600,000 quarantine orders, noting that digital tracing was necessary because the virus's high reproduction rate made manual methods insufficient. He disclosed that the total programme cost was about $180 million, with the majority spent on providing TraceTogether tokens to residents upon request. The Minister highlighted that technology-driven tracing, combined with vaccination and healthcare protocols, contributed to Singapore's low fatality rate and strong recovery. Finally, he stated that detailed programme records were deleted to protect privacy after the system was stood down.
Transcript
14 Mr Kenneth Tiong Boon Kiat asked the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health (a) of all COVID-19 cases identified by contact tracing between March 2020 and 13 February 2023, how many (i) were identified with TraceTogether and (ii) would not have been identified through conventional contact tracing methods; (b) what was the total TraceTogether programme cost over its lifetime; and (c) whether the Ministry will publish a retrospective cost-effectiveness evaluation of TraceTogether to inform future digital tracing efforts.
Mr Ong Ye Kung: We no longer have detailed data on the TraceTogether Programme as records have all been deleted when we stood down the programme. We estimate that about 600,000 quarantine orders were issued, with TraceTogether supplementing conventional contact tracing methods. This would have a significant impact on suppressing the spread of COVID-19, preventing infections and saving lives.
Unlike the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, where the reproduction number, or R0, was two to four and spread was limited mostly to healthcare facilities, COVID-19 was transmitted more widely in the community with an R0 of five to 10, especially during the Delta and Omicron waves. It was not possible to conduct contact tracing for COVID-19 in the later stage of the pandemic through conventional, manual methods sufficiently quickly to control transmission in the community.
Fortunately, we were able to deploy technology to strengthen our contact tracing capabilities. Together with vaccination, safe management measures and adaptive healthcare protocols that preserved hospital capacity, we were able to weather through the pandemic crisis with one of the lowest COVID-19 fatality rates globally and enable a strong recovery.
The total cost of the TraceTogether Programme, including development of the TraceTogether qpp for handphones and the provision of TraceTogether tokens, was about $180 million. Majority of the cost was incurred for the TraceTogether tokens, which were made available to all residents on request.