Thermal cameras for COVID-19 screening

It’s 5.30am and the morning shift has arrived. All 300 of them. In this COVID-Safe era, how are you going to quickly, safely, and accurately temperature-screen them all before their shift starts at 6am?

With a single next-generation infra-red thermal camera, the screeners from Corporate Protection Australia can scan and process over 450 people per hour – that’s one every 8 seconds. This 33% increase over handheld thermometer guns and a whopping 60% increase on in-ear thermometers.

At times when large volumes of personnel are entering or leaving a worksite – such as at the start and end of a shift – hand-operated temperature screening devices and more manual procedures can create bottlenecks. Thermal cameras prove their worth by alleviating delays and reducing the time it takes for a new shift to deploy or for teams to handover between shifts.

on-site thermal camera screening for COVID-19
On-site thermal camera screening can quickly, accurately, and unobtrusively detect tiny variations in a person’s body temperature.

Stefan Hiller, Security Analyst at iSafe Safety Management Systems, has nothing but praise for his new “toy”. “The uptick in productivity is plain to see,” he enthused. “From iSafe’s perspective, it’s simple to set up, train, and operate; and the throughput is amazing. The people that we screen love it, too: There’s less queueing required and it’s a lot less intrusive than manual scanning.”

Stefan Hiller, Security Analyst at iSafe Safety Management Systems
Stefan Hiller conducting on-site training. He’s kitted up against both the virus and the chilly outback mornings.

Thermal cameras are operated remotely, so they keep screeners safer too. The further screeners can distance themselves from each screenee, the better. On some sites, screeners can be exposed to many hundreds of workers (and thus many hundreds of potential carriers) every shift.

CPA has completed road-testing thermal camera screening at a major mine site in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, and has the capacity to roll out as many as needs require.

These next-generation thermal devices represent yet another arrow to CPA Group’s already packed quiver of screening tools. And they represent yet another value-added service we can provide to help our clients achieve and maintain their COVID-Safe Plans. In April alone, CPA Group provided over 300,000 individual employee-access screening tests (including temperature measurement and health assessments) across 42 sites in 4 states. That’s the equivalent of screening a very man, woman, and child in Cairns and Townsville combined.

In line with our mission for business recovery and continuity, these tools allow for rapid, accurate, high volume scanning for any industry with large, mission-critical workforces, such as mining, oil & gas, shipping, transport, logistics, travel, events, and tourism. The cameras are also ideal for screening in patient-sensitive scenarios – such as aged-care – where maintaining even safer distances from the screenee is paramount.

CPA Group remains focused on delivering efficiencies as our clients seek to implement safer, more productive, and more cost-effective solutions. We are ready to deploy fully-trained and equipped teams with the expertise to deliver the complete suite of COVID-Safe solutions.

iSafe Safety Management Systems is part of the Corporate Protection Australia Group.