Page 12 - Campus Security & Life Safety, September/October 2020

CoverStory
responsibility to protect the health of everyone on campus."
The University of Arizona and countless other schools across the United States are turning to technology to help combat the spread of COVID-19 on campus. From virus killing UV lights to contact tracing systems, private enterprise is innovating and enhancing solutions that will protect our children. Below we take a look at the latest tech and trends available on the market and what educational institutions should
consider about each one.
Automated Temperature Checks
A fever has become a quick determining factor of someone conta- gious with COVID-19. According to the FDA, “non-contact” tem- perature scanning systems can be an effective way to identify and triage people who have elevated temperatures. Companies are turn- ing to temperature tracking infrared cameras to help spot sick people from a safe distance, and schools are beginning to follow.
A range of companies like FLIR and Electro Optical Industries are selling thermal cameras for fever detection touting their product as a way to detect COVID-19 early, but health experts balk at the claim. "You cannot expect fever and symptom screening to be any kind of foolproof measure," Jamie Lloyd-Smith, Ph.D., an infectious diseases professor at UCL, told Wired. "COVID-19 seems to be spread quite effectively by people who are hard to detect this way." Additionally, temperature scanning technology can be unreliable in a school setting as students enter the building hot from outdoor gym or recess.
Regardless of its flaws, thermal cameras can accurately detect
increased body temperatures leading to possible contagious people to be pulled aside for additional health checks. Plus, schools that already have operating surveillance cameras can quickly adopt thermal scan- ning into their system at less cost.
Creative Tech to Help Enforce Social Distancing
The concept of “social distance” is hardest to comprehend by the youngest students. Tech piloted in Germany is bringing creative ways to distance elementary kids. Gauselmann Group's "C-Ampel" traffic light uses infrared technology to measure the number of people admit- ted to the bathroom at a time. If the light signals green, kids know they may enter. If the light signals red, children are taught to wait until someone leaves the bathroom.
“Keeping a distance is one of the most important protective measures against coronavirus in our schools. However, this is not so easy to implement in sanitary areas: on the one hand, children visit the facilities independently, on the other hand, they cannot see in advance how many people are already present,” said Silke Gillar, director of the Gehlenbeck-Nettelstedt primary schools told Info Play International. Traffic light C helps here: it fully automatically ensures that there are no more than four children in the toilets at the same time.”
Virus Eliminating UV Lights
Conventional germicidal UVC lights, which are unsafe to human skin, have long been used to kill bacteria in unoccupied hospital
12 campuslifesecurity.com | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020
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