Return to school in the COVID-19 era: considerations for temperature measurement

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemics required a reorganisation of social spaces to prevent the spread of the virus. Due to the common presence of fever in the symptomatic patients, temperature measurement is one of the most common screening protocols. Indeed, regulations in many countries require temperature measurements before entering shops, workplaces, and public buildings. Due to the necessity of providing rapid non-contact and non-invasive protocols to measure body temperature, infra-red thermometry is mostly used. Many countries are now facing the need to organise the return to school and universities in the COVID-19 era, which require solutions to prevent the risk of contagion between students and/or teachers and technical/administrative staff. This paper highlights and discusses some of the strengths and limitations of infra-red cameras, including the site of measurements and the influence of the environment, and recommends to be careful to consider such measurements as a single “safety rule” for a good return to normality.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• fever
• temperature
• infra-red thermal camera
• non-contact thermometry

Authors’ contributions

ABS and MA conceived the study, wrote the draft, and reviewed the final version of the manuscript; PM, GF and AA reviewed the literature and reviewed the final version of the manuscript. All the authors approved the submitted manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).