What do you know about temperature screening? Our new best practice guide provides all the information you need including the challenges, benefits and limitations of the different temperature measurement systems available.
Temperature screening can be an effective mitigation method to help slow the spread of COVID-19 and other highly infectious respiratory diseases.
It should be used to enhance core mitigation methods including social distancing, frequent hand hygiene, and the use of face coverings in public spaces.
Sometimes referred to, incorrectly, as fever screening systems, monitoring for elevated skin temperatures can provide a front line temperature triage to identify individuals that may be exhibiting a higher than expected temperature.
A high surface temperature can be a strong indicator of a fever, a symptom of COVID-19, and therefore a reason for a further check to verify if an individual has a feverish temperature with a calibrated, tympanic ‘in-ear’ medical thermometer.
While temperature screening can be effective, the requirements for the equipment used to obtain a reliable, repeatable, and accurate measurement are very specific, and many systems currently being marketed for this purpose are inaccurate and inadequate for this task.
To be clear: there are no thermal temperature screening systems available on the market today that are able to diagnose COVID-19. However, if correctly specified and installed, they can accurately detect temperatures above a specified range or threshold, such as 100.4 °F (38 °C) , the Center for Disease Control (CDC) definition of fever.
This guide is designed to help you distinguish between appropriate technology, and equipment that is inadequate for reliable human skin temperature measurement. It also contains advice about how to implement best practice protocols and how to avoid the common pitfalls in temperature screening.
Key topics covered:
- The challenge of accurate surface temperature measurements of humans
- Benefits and limitations of temperature screening
- Hand-held non contact thermometers
- Multi-person and crowd scanning systems
- The gold standard of temperature screening - 'In- scene' calibration with integrated blackbody source (BBS)
- Season skin surface temperature variation
- Temperature screening best practice
- Temperature measurement area recommendations
- Temperature measurement procedure recommendation
Download the VIRALERT Temperature Screening Best Practice Guide