Singapore has been implementing vaccination-differentiated measures (VDS) since 10 Aug at places like F&B outlets.
Most people are now quite used to flashing their TraceTogether apps before entering various premises to prove they’re fully vaccinated.
But what happens if the app isn’t working? For a short while, some users’ vaccination status showed as “unavailable”.
Though the issue was resolved at 9pm, the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) apologised to users for the inconvenience.
The issue seemed to have started on Monday (8 Nov) evening, according to The Straits Times (ST).
Some users said that at about 7.10pm, both boxes under “Covid Health Status” in the app – vaccination status and test status – said “temporarily unavailable”.
In a Facebook post at about 8.30pm, user Cindy Chiam said she was about to enter a food court and was going to show her vaccination status as usual.
However, both boxes on the app were replaced by a message saying, “Temporarily unavailable. We’re working hard to fix it”.
Despite waiting for a long time, it still didn’t work, she added.
In a Facebook post on the same night, GovTech acknowledged the problem, saying vaccination verification was “currently unavailable”.
Similar to what was said in Ms Chiam’s message, the agency said they were working to resolve it.
At about 9.25pm, GovTech posted on Facebook again, saying that the verification field had been restored.
They also thanked users for their patience.
On the SafeEntry website, a banner also appeared saying the technical issue with vaccination status checks was fixed on 9pm on Monday (8 Nov), within 2 hours of it 1st being reported.
Users who can’t prove their vaccination status might understandably have gotten a little angsty, as they wouldn’t have been able to do things like enter malls.
Thus, when the app had the problem, GovTech advised premises to admit users even if they couldn’t present their status on their apps.
Since 10 Aug, only fully vaccinated people were allowed to dine-in at F&B establishments.
The VDS expanded to malls, attractions, hawker centres and coffee shops from 13 Oct.
Kudos to GovTech for resolving the problem quickly.
Since VDS is now quite widespread, a prolonged breakdown would’ve caused chaos for users and businesses alike.
Let’s hope TraceTogether will be problem-free from now on.
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Featured image adapted from GovTech on Facebook and Facebook.
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The incident has been reported to the Singapore Food Agency (SFA).
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