How schools and universities can implement temperature screening to ensure student safety post-lockdown
As lockdown restrictions are being gradually eased across the country, industries of all types must now consider additional health and safety measures, to ensure a safe re-opening.
Schools and universities in particular, which have been badly affected during the Coronavirus pandemic, are faced with the problem of re-opening as before, without risking a second wave of infections amongst students and staff.
This is where fever screening can play an important role. By instantly identifying those with abnormal temperatures, schools, colleges and universities can prevent those who may be infectious with COVID-19 from entering their premises and in turn, potentially spreading the virus to others.
Here, Lasse Tonnesen, Managing Director at Test Meter Group, explains exactly how thermal imaging temperature screening works to identify those with abnormal temperatures, and how the education sector can implement this technology to ensure their safe re-opening.
How does thermal imaging temperature screening work?
Infrared thermal fever screening solutions, such as FOTRIC 226B, use AI face detection to automatically check an individual’s temperature
These imagers also incorporate a body temperature calibration algorithm, which works to prevent false negatives. This algorithm works by automatically collecting face temperatures in different scenarios for self-learning. It then adjusts the body temperature alarm threshold in real time by adapting to ambient temperature changes. This prevents false alarms from people who report abnormal body temperature due to morning or night-time temperature differences, for example.
What happens if someone has an abnormal temperature?
If an imager detects an abnormal temperature, it emits an automatic alert, which allows for a rapid on-site identification and prevention of the person from entering the premises. The imager will also automatically capture the photo of the detected person, which can be used for further statistics and analysis.
How can this help care homes to re-open safely?
It goes without saying that schools and universities must implement a range of additional measures to ensure safety when easing lockdown restrictions.
By implementing thermal imaging temperature screening solutions as part of these additional measures, they will be able to identify any potential students approaching the premise who may unknowingly have symptoms of COVID-19.
It’s important that the schools and universities then have a strict procedure in place to allow these students to be removed from site in a safe manner and without coming into contact with any other person.
Education facilities can then use the images captured by the imager to keep a record of those students who have reported abnormal temperatures to ensure they do not return to the premises within seven days, as well as to identify any trends or patterns emerging in the data.
More information on FOTRIC 226B can be found here.
