How Temperature Screening Can Potentially Aid with Mitigating Transmission (And Liability) in the Workplace

Whether it’s factories, construction sites, postal facilities, or large retailers, the latest numbers show heavily populated, essential workplaces are hotspots for COVID-19 in Ontario. Driven largely by industrial jobs, workplaces have surged to become the most common setting for outbreaks in Ontario and have even surpassed care settings, including long-term care homes.

While small businesses have been forced to drastically reduce or entirely halt operations, and most office spaces have moved to a work-from-home approach, factories, grocers, and construction crews don’t have those options – if they don’t work, our entire supply chain will be disrupted and vital infrastructure projects delayed. Also, many of the workers don’t get paid if they don’t go to work because most companies don’t provide paid sick days.

What’s more disappointing, is that some of these companies are reporting record sales and earnings while not doing everything that they can to protect the health and safety of their employees and customers; a number of locations of major retailers in Toronto recently received tickets and fines after a safety blitz from by-law officers. So even with established health and safety protocols in place, providing personal protective equipment, regularly wiping down and disinfecting surfaces, and monitoring people to not be close together for extended periods of time, if you’re too complacent, effectiveness of these measures dwindles fast. Thus, the more that can be done to remind people that we need to be vigilant and enforce the established policies, the better we can mitigate transmission of the virus.   

Health and safety aside, there is also a business case to be made that companies should do all they can for their employees, or else they expose themselves to liability and potential litigation. Despite the Ontario government passing a law providing liability protection for businesses for COVID-19 issues (the Supporting Ontario’s Recovery and Municipal Elections Act, 2020) related to exposure of COVID-19 to customers or clients, employers are not protected from claims from employees.

Here at Predictiv AI, we believe that the ThermalPass is the best temperature screening device that an employer can implement that adds another layer to the overall health, wellness, and safety protocol rolled out in the workplace. Features most relevant to the industrial/retail use case include: it’s a touchless/non-contact temperature measurement, has capacity to screen up to 60 people per minute, it’s accessible, has a long battery life, offered as a portable solution, and it’s highly secure and integrates into a multitude of enterprise solutions. So while temperature screening is by no means an end-all, be-all, it’s another layer of protection and thoughtfulness in the toolbox that can be introduced to aid in reducing transmission and spread of COVID-19.

Earlier this week, we announced our new partnership with TFG Concepts, a sales agency with more than three decades of expertise representing over 20 international manufacturers and brands throughout North America in the retail, commercial, hospitality and food services industries, including major retailers such as Canadian Tire, Costco, Home Depot, Lowe's and Walmart, to name a few. Our team is very much looking forward to working with TFG over the coming weeks as they introduce ThermalPass to their partners. 

If you or someone from your organization is interested in finding out more information about the ThermalPass or to request a quote, please visit https://www.thermalpass.com/.

ThermalPass is not making any express or implied claims that its product has the ability to eliminate, cure or contain the COVID-19 (or SARS-2 coronavirus) at this time. That said, it is a very compelling component in any healthcare institution’s COVID-19 toolbox to aid in the thoughtfulness of social distancing, mask wearing, hand washing/sanitizing protocols, and all of the other mindful and effective risk mitigation practices we’ve all been employing to help keep the pandemic under manageable control.