As schools face the challenges of new safety protocols, ScanaTemp can provide students and staff with a convenient, unobtrusive option for monitoring COVID-19 symptoms and face coverings.
UNESCO estimates that over 990 million children around the world are being affected by school closures due to the pandemic. As schools in the United States seek to open in a safe way, implementing safety protocols for hundreds of students at school is one of the biggest challenges of this new normal.
For Souderton Charter School in Souderton, Pennsylvania, ScanaTemp became a crucial tool to check the temperatures of students, staff, and visitors as they entered the building. As they adapted to protect the health of their student body, school staff was particularly concerned about the safety of the staff members charged with checking symptoms at the main office — particularly temperatures. With a traditional temperature scanner, staff members would be exposed to large numbers of people a day, increasing their risk of contracting COVID-19 even while implementing protocols.
With ScanaTemp, this concern has been quickly addressed and resolved. Staff members can now check temperatures in a precise, consistent way by mounting the device on the wall or on a tripod in the area where people file into the building. ScanaTemp then reads temperatures in less than half a minute, sounding a voice prompt or alarm if it detects an individual with a temperature over the set maximum.
The World Health Organization defines a fever, one of the first symptoms of COVID-19, as being any temperature over 100.4 F. ScanaTemp allows users to set a maximum temperature of 100.4 F, 100.8 F, or 101.2 F, according to what local guidelines advise. In this way, individuals presenting this warning symptom can be prevented from entering the building without exposing others.
Jennifer, the Director of Education at Souderton Charter School, says that ScanaTemp “provides peace of mind that visitors are undergoing the same symptoms checks as our students and staff. With it, we feel more confident in offering in-person instruction to our students.”
Besides detecting temperatures, ScanaTemp can also detect the presence of face coverings, and offers the option of activating verbal reminders. Research has shown that wearing face coverings in enclosed spaces reduces the likelihood of contracting COVID-19 by up to 90 percent. When activating ScanaTemp’s reminder feature, individuals entering the building who are not wearing face coverings immediately hear a reminder from the device to put on their masks. At Souderton Charter School, this feature removed much of the burden of reminders from staff, and easily enforced the wearing of facial coverings for everyone entering the building.
ScanaTemp also detects both temperature and the presence of face coverings for more than one person at a time, making it even more effective than having a staff member doing the monitoring. This is particularly helpful in places like Souderton Charter School, where large numbers of people are entering at a time.
“We love ScanaTemp!” Jennifer says. “Our students see, in real time, how technological innovation can bring forth a quick and effective solution to the COVID crisis.”