The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has gripped our planet like never before. As national COVID-19 infection numbers surpass a million cases, many governments and industries are gearing up to lift restrictions. This situation poses a difficult prospect: how do we resume operations without endangering our employees and customers?
Thermal cameras are the answer many businesses have been desperately seeking. Following CDC guidelines for sanitation, social distancing, and self-isolation are all critical for reducing the risk of infection, but identifying possible infections through pre-screening is a key component to this process. Having a thermal camera allows you to detect employees or customers who have an elevated body temperature, indicating a possible fever, which is one of the primary symptoms COVID-19 infections present.
Use of thermal imaging technology has become a pivotal tool as businesses and facilities attempt to manage the risk of COVID-19’s spread. Amazon, Wynn Resorts, and a number of Chinese corporations are employing the tactic to great effect. “The coronavirus epidemic has put a spotlight on thermal-imaging technology,” writes Fortune Magazine, which reveals many consider thermal cameras, “as a potentially important tool in combating pandemics and protecting the global economy.”
Thermal body scanning cameras are available in a variety of products and systems, which can be curated to meet the needs and goals of the user. When integrated within part of a comprehensive system for detecting likely infections and preventing contact, thermal cameras can serve as an integral safeguard in an uncertain and understandably nervous economic climate.
Thermal Cameras Provide Critical Early Detection for Likely Coronavirus Infections
While humans can develop COVID-19 after contact with a contaminated surface, person-to-person transmission is one of the most pressing concerns. Research shows that just talking or breathing heavily in a room can potentially transmit the virus to everyone occupying the same space. Since the virus spreads aggressively, just one infected employee or building occupant can transmit the virus to an exponential number of others.
The key to preventing this scenario is to identify a possible COVID-19 case before they have the chance to contaminate building surfaces or spreading infectious microdroplets to others. Even early on, airport security for international travel was employing thermometers to identify and isolate potential COVID-19 cases. The problem is that screening individual people using contact equipment like a forehead thermometer is time-consuming, and it also introduces the risk that you are contaminating the equipment and then potentially infecting others as you use it. With thermal cameras, supervisors and security can rapidly assess a number of individuals across an entire space, expediting the process of detecting elevated body temperatures while minimizing the risk of contact.
Realizing this benefit, online retail behemoth Amazon switched from forehead thermometers to thermal imaging to monitor their warehouses. This allows them to implement crucial controls in workspaces that can often force workers to come into close proximity with one another.
Speaking to Reuters, Amazon expressed that the purpose of purchasing the technology was, “to support the health and safety of our employees, who continue to provide a critical service in our communities.”
Other industries and services have embraced the technology, as well. One provider of the technology noted the sheer variety of clientele in email correspondence with Government Technology Magazine.
“Last week was to a hospital, next is a 911 call center and an airport after that, but the orders are coming in from all walks of life, businesses large and small that want a pre-screening technology in place,” the representative revealed.
Using Thermal Imaging Can Be an Important Part of Public Health and Safety for Your Operation
Thermal imaging technology alone cannot act as a stopgap to COVID-19 transmission — asymptomatic cases can still spread for days before a fever is detected — but when implemented on top of training, sanitation measures, education, and proactive self-isolation, thermal cameras can provide potentially life-saving benefits.
In an environment where risks are unknown and just one case can balloon into hundreds, businesses have a vital duty to keep COVID-19 from jamming its foot into your doorway.
If you are interested in providing safety while decreasing risks to profitability and productivity, thermal cameras can help maintain employee safety in an efficient, cost-effective way. Contact CIS Life Safety for more information and curated recommendations on products and systems that can meet your specific goals.
