Are Fever Detection Solutions Still Necessary?

As COVID-19 continues to surge across the U.S. to another level, organizations of all sizes are still coping with its effects. While a vaccine is clearly on the horizon, it will be months before the country gets back to normal, and that may be a new normal that incorporates some lessons learned from dealing with a deadly pandemic.

Fever detection has been a mitigation solution widely employed in workplaces and other locations to help prevent the spread of disease. While no magic bullet, it is a viable option, along with masks and social distancing, to keep potentially sick people separated from healthy ones.

We’ve written extensively on these pages about various fever detection solutions and implementation issues. Many companies have responded to the pandemic by avoiding physical contact with capacity limitations and extended work from home programs, schools have hybrid learning and distanced operations, and sports have been played with sparse audience attendance. While many public businesses and premises – like medical facilities – have opted for manual fever checks, faster and more automated means have proven useful to companies with large numbers of employees, like Amazon.

Should your Memorial, TX, organization consider a fever detection solution as part of its pandemic mitigation strategy ahead of a vaccine rollout?  Keep reading for some critical considerations.

SEE MORE: Obstacles to Implementing Fever Detection (and How to Overcome Them)

Your Community

One of the most important considerations should be your community. Will your workforce consider it an invasion of privacy to have their temperature taken every day? Perhaps more importantly, is it insulting to them that you think they might show up to work sick? Some professional workforces that can't work from home might feel that they're being trusted to work in a highly skilled and essential job, yet they’re not smart enough to stay home when they have a fever. Understanding your community and their concerns is critical to keeping them healthy while still keeping their trust.

Fever Detection is a Tool

Fever or elevated temperature is but one sign of the virus. The other causes of fever in Texas haven’t disappeared because of COVID-19, like Cedar fever. While allergies like Cedar fever don’t run a high temperature, it’s enough to trigger any fever detection threshold. Should someone coming onto the premises have a fever, you need to have a strategy to deal with that person. Secondary screening, more detailed questions, and potentially a separate area where they might be able to work segregated from others might all be options based on not passing a fever screening.

Thermal Imaging Solutions Can be Redeployed

Automated fever detection systems are generally able to be redeployed for other purposes, typically for security. If you are looking to invest in a system for fever detection at scale and are concerned about financial return on investment, this may be a factor. Most of the solutions available today are utilizing thermal imaging cameras that have been used in a wide variety of applications, such as night vision for security systems or monitoring heat buildup in production processes. The software and the calibration have been revamped to detect body temperature accurately as people come before the camera. Depending on the solution you may need, once fever detection is not required, those cameras and systems might be redeployed via software into another application that continues to enhance the security of your constituents and workforce.

ASAP Security Services has multiple decades of experience with advanced security solutions and is committed to bringing state-of-the-art technology solutions like fever detection to assist organizations in responding to this pandemic. To learn more, set up a consultation with our team by calling (877) 418-ASAP, filling out our contact form, or starting a live chat with us below. We look forward to working with you!