Safety measures for school students

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, schools are preparing to reopen with new health and safety guidelines. When dealing with the different age groups (4 to-16 years) of students, schools face challenges that will complicate the daily school bus transportation and school campus activity. These challenges include:

Enforcing post-COVID-19 safety and social distance on student transportation and school grounds

ENTRANCE

Taking temperature readings at the entrance to the school and on the school bus for thousands of pupils every day. The school bus and the school campus are equipped with a reliable thermometer that is very quick, accurate, and easy to use.  Every student is monitored during transportation, and attendance is tracked as well as when and where each student boards and exits the bus. Monitoring every student on the school grounds and keeping notes of when and where they entered the building. When a student enters the bus or enters the school campus, temperature checking is very important in order to identify COVID-19 as fever is one of the most important side effects of COVID19.

In case a student tests positive for fever, they can be checked on COVID-19. If that is the case, the good thing is that treatment can be started immediately.

WHICH THERMOMETER

Often, people use cheap infrared thermometers made in China, so called IR guns. These products are not particularly useful as IR guns, according to a big Australian survey, miss most fevers. An IR gun is used to target the middle of the forehead, measuring the temperature of………..the skin not taking into account the ambient temperature or the condition of the patient (for instance they just run, just stepped into a warm room coming out of a cold, wintery outdoors, wearing a cap. Therefore, you will get a lot of measurements simply missing the fever completely. This can be a dangerous situation. Also keep in mind that most of the IR guns were developed for industrial applications where the difference of a couple degrees is not a big problem. In case of body temperature, this is a big thing. If you are off 2 degrees where the measurement goes from 34/35 degrees to 42 degrees, you could end up in the hospital later than wished for.

ACCURACY MATTERS

The good way to correctly measure the body temperature could be the use of a Temporal Artery Thermometer. Within a few seconds, you can have an accurate reading of the body temperature by gently swiping the sensor head of the thermometer across the forehead by simply touching it. Here you measure the blood temperature within the temporal artery which runs on the forehead, just 2 mm below the skin. This is as close it can get to the golden standard being rectal. 
The big advantage is that it is very accurate next to being easy, fast, cost effective, non- invasive. You can even measure your child’s temperature while they are asleep. You do not have to undress them, reposition them or…………even worse wake them up.