FeverWarn – How This Thermal Scanning Device Facilitates School And College Reopening
Although resuming economic activities amidst the pandemic is highly risky, people are now ready to take that risk, as it has been over 6 months that they have been confined to their homes. The authorities are realizing that lockdown is no longer a solution to contain the spread of the disease and stressing more on individual protective measures, proper testing, and screening.
Although many states are still pondering the decision to reopen schools and universities in the Fall, many others are going ahead with it, after taking the necessary precautions as meted out by CDC to ensure maximum safety of the students, teachers, and other staff members.
Thermal scanning is one such measure that can help the educational institutes keep the SARS-COVID-19 infections at bay. Before we get down to the effectiveness of FeverWarn, a device for temperature screening on a mass scale, you should know a few things about the transmission of the virus in children and young adults.
The rate of infection in children is lower
According to the medical data and evidence collected by researchers, the impact of the COVID-19 virus in children below 18 years is relatively much lower than adults. According to the CDC, adults in the US make up almost 95% of the infected population. It also opines that even if children get the infection, they don’t suffer from severe symptoms and also recover easily. The mortality rate in children due to COVID-19 infections is less than 0.1%. Even young adults, in the age group 10-17, apparently don’t experience severe symptoms of the infection that may lead to hospitalization, disabilities, or deaths. However,children with co-morbidities, like respiratory infections, immunity disorders, and endocrinal issues have greater chances of severity from the virus, which may lead to a multi system inflammatory syndrome that requires hospitalization.
As most of the educational institutes were closing during the pandemic, the risks of contracting the infection for children were less. But now that the school and colleges are opening, one must be careful and observe all the required measures to contain the spread of SARS-COVID-19.
What is the importance of thermal scanning?
As most of the COVID-19 patients experience fever-like symptoms, fever scanning is an efficient way to detect the possibilities of infection. No wonder, several temperature-detecting devices are being used extensively in airports and other public places, like shopping malls, hospitals, offices, industrial centers, and so on. Now with the educational institutes reopening on a mass scale, it’s important to put up thermal scanners at these places to keep possibly-infected people from entering. This invariably gives rise to the question of effectiveness in terms of the fever-detecting devices being used right now.
How effective are the thermal screening devices?
Most of the thermal guns, thermal imaging cameras, infrared thermometers, and other non-contact temperature assessment devices aim to detect fever in people at the entry point of enclosed public places. Although there is still a chance of spreading infections, because of the asymptomatic carriers, such measures can at least contain the rate of spread to a good extent. But are all the devices used to detect body temperature from a distance effective?
According to many experts, the effectiveness of most thermal detectors depends on a series of factors, like following the manufacturer’s instructions carefully regarding setup and use, accuracy testing, distance measuring, and the severity of the infection, of course. A lot of people having a fever may take medications to lower the temperature before visiting a store nearby. Even if this person has COVID-19, there are higher chances that his fever will show normal levels, thus misleading the thermal detector. This apart, the distance at which the temperature is measuring without touching also affects the accuracy to some extent. If you stand even a few inches away from the required distance, your temperature may be detected differently.
Last but not the least of all concerns, most thermal detectors used nowadays are handled manually by some professionals. In case this person isn’t available at the entry point, people may avoid the screening and enter the premises. When there’s a rush of students, during an important lecture, exam, or anything else, such instances are quite possible. This can be minimized by automatic temperature detection or self-service devices that don’t require a person to conduct the procedure.
Enter FeverWarn – The self-service thermal scanning device
FeverWarn temperature scanning device is mainly directed to help schools and businesses operate amidst the pandemic without putting people at high risk of contracting the infection. Most thermal scanners that are manually controlled can screen about 20 people per minute, which is quite slow and unproductive at times when at least a hundred should be screened every minute. FeverWarn conducts mass screening through FDA-approved infrared measurements and can be fitted on the main gates and auxiliary doors of the enclosed public spaces. It works quite effectively in a school or college campus, and students need to just keep their fists forward to get their body temperatures detected accurately.
Most of the fever screening products available in the market take the forehead-scanning approach that won’t work for students, as their heights vary from 4-7ft. Therefore, the fists forward technique is just the thing that the schools and colleges are looking for. Investing in this technology can help provide the students, faculty members, and other staff at the educational institutes a silent promise to safeguard their health and prevent a spike in infections inside the campus.
Some of the salient features of FeverWarn
FeverWarn meets the requirements of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an effective thermal scanner using infrared sensors to detect body temperatures. This is one of the biggest advantages of the product, and it ticks almost all the boxes of requirements of the school and college authorities. it also gives a reason to trust the effectiveness of the product in containing the spread of the COVID-19 infections among students, who were, by far, the safest in their homes.
Let’s now discuss a few other features that make FeverWarn indispensable for schools and colleges.
Maximum accuracy
The device has an accuracy to +/- 0.9 degree F or +/- 0.5 C regarding temperature detection. This is quite high as compared to the thermal guns being widely used these days. Further, as there’s no chance to stand too close or too far from the detector, one can expect almost the exact detection of body temperature with FeverWarn.
No manual handling required
One doesn’t need to stand for a long time in the queue to get the temperature detected before entering the premises of the institute. As the device is self-servicing, one needs to just put their fist forward and get detected. There’s also no need to touch the device during screening.
It’s a local product
Most of the US population is keener to adopt local products instead of depending on foreign ones. Hence, it's good news that FeverWarn is 100% made in the US, from design to manufacture and shipping, thus giving them no chance to complain. It has been designed to fit the specific requirements of US citizens, especially the students.
Auxiliary card readers
FeverWarn comes with auxiliary USB card readers to send data and alerts to the doors and gates of the building. It also consists of a built-in relay controller to send information and output to the auxiliary devices at the doors and gates faster. Hence, it creates a safe loop for students so that they won’t face many hazards due to the mishandling of thermal detection devices.
Reporting made easy
Most of the temperature scanning devices used these days are though effective to some extent in detecting temperatures, they lack some kind of data storage facility to send reports or other information to the authorities. FeverWarn comes with at least 16 GB local storage to retain the data generated through scanning and additional cloud storage to hold this data for 6 months. You can download and store the cloud data in some other device, as per your requirements.
During the wake of the pandemic, we were unprepared to handle the rate at which infections were spreading. It won’t be wrong to say that we were taken completely by shock, and the lockdown was the only way to contain the virus then. However, after 6 months, we have progressed a little in terms of protective gear, detection tools, and even healthcare procedures to at least ensure better protection to the common people, who need to resume their social and economic activities eventually. We are trying to find out ways to live with the virus without compromising our health. And thermal scanning devices like FeverWarn, setting up hand sanitizing counters at all public places, mandating the use of masks are some of the effective ways to increase the level of protection for the public, as they swarm out of their homes, unable to live within the four walls any more.