Digital Solutions for a 21st Century Pandemic – COVID-19 Technologies | Singapore Government Developer Portal
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Digital Solutions for a 21st Century Pandemic – COVID-19 Technologies


Overview

By tapping on engineering capabilities to build on its existing digital infrastructure, GovTech has been able to swiftly roll out a wide variety of digital tools to aid and complement our nation’s strategic response to the pandemic. In designing these tools, developers were guided by three important underlying principles:

  • Compliance to public health policies and standards: Technologies had to be based on sound public health principles and informed by the needs of health authorities.
  • Compliance to public health standards: Technologies had to be based on sound public health principles and informed by the needs of health authorities.
  • Accountability to the public: Transparency of data collection and usage had to be ensured.
  • Accessibility to all: These solutions had to be accessible even to non-digital natives, with alternatives provided for the digitally excluded and underserved populations where necessary.

Timely and targeted solutions adhering to these design philosophies have been created for each unique need that has arisen due to the pandemic. Here are some of the tools that we have developed to meet these needs.

Fig 1: An overview of GovTech’s COVID-19 technologies
Fig 1: An overview of GovTech’s COVID-19 technologies

Preventing the Spread

HealthCerts - Digital Standards and Schema

HealthCerts contains a set of digital standards and schema for issuing COVID-19 test results/vaccination certificates. It is developed by GovTech in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and is aligned to both international standards and the Singapore Government’s requirements.

TraceTogether – Community-Driven Contact Tracing

TraceTogether is a mobile application developed by GovTech’s Government Digital Services team and the MOH to complement manual contact tracing efforts.

Verify (Digital Certificates) – A blockchain-powered way to quickly and easily verify digital certificates

Verify is the Singapore Government's trusted government verifier for OpenAttestation (or .OA) files.

Crowd Management and Distribution

COVID-19 ChatBots

The COVID-19 ChatBots were created by GovTech’s Virtual Intelligent Chat Assistant (VICA) team in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) to help the Singapore public stay updated on COVID-19 news.

GoWhere Suite - Timely and Accurate COVID-19 Aid Information

GovTech’s Government Digital Services team created GoWhere Suite as a means of providing citizens with timely and accurate information regarding matters like mask collection, polling information, clinic and health subsidy information, COVID-19 support schemes and COVID-19-related government websites.

Space Out - Crowd Analysis for Safe Distancing

SpaceOut was developed by the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) Digital Planning Lab to facilitate safe distancing and provide the public with regular updates on crowd levels in malls, supermarkets, and other public facilities across Singapore.

SenseOps – Visualisation and Dashboarding Platform for Inter-Agency Operations, Planning, and Analysis

SenseOps is a visualisation and dashboarding app that integrates real-time data from different sources into a single platform for situational awareness Smart Nation Platform Solutions (SNPS) It helps government agencies to improve safe distancing and managemnt efforts through more effective inter-agency planning, coordination, and reporting.

SPOTON – Smart Thermal Scanning

SPOTON is a smart thermal scanner that was created by GovTech’s Smart Nation Platform Solutions (SNPS) team. With SPOTON, rapid crowd temperature screening is enabled by automated alerting of operators once individuals with high temperatures are identified. This minimises physical contact and time spent on manual temperature checks.

SupplyAlly - Distribution Made Simple

SupplyAlly is an app that facilitates the process of logistics distribution during COVID-19. The app serves as a single solution for both the management of a flexible pool of supply-distributing volunteers, as well as the tracking of collection quotas.

VigilantGantry - Access Control with AI and Video Analytics

VigilantGantry is a fully automated, contactless gantry system for temperature screening developed by GovTech’s Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Division (DSAID). Driven by AI and deep learning, it augments existing thermal scanners to improve the rate of contactless scanning, ease bottlenecks in long queues outside buildings and reduce the manpower required for temperature screening measures.

Supporting the Community

GoBusiness COVID Portal – Support Portal for Reopening Businesses

The GoBusiness COVID Portal was jointly developed by GovTech and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) to support businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. It enables businesses to apply for exemptions and permissions while providing them with information on the latest COVID-19 related regulations and safe management requirements for the continuation of their operations.

Last updated 29 April 2024


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