As U.S. businesses look ahead to reopening office space, restaurants, retail stores and tourist attractions, they will need to use technology to prevent another wave of COVID-19, according to The Wall Street Journal.
"The re-emergence over the coming weeks and months will be fitful, fragile and partial — and a bit dystopian, with frequent temperature checks, increased monitoring of employees and customers, and, potentially, blood tests to determine whether workers have likely immunity," state the article's authors before outlining several key ways organizations will need technology to reopen the economy ahead of a vaccine, which could be more than a year away.
Five things to know:
1. Tracking apps could become a requirement for some to examine the spread of the virus and notify people if they have come in contact with an infected individual. This is already a reality in Iceland, where people are downloading a government-approved contact tracing app. Knotel, a flexible office company, will likely add the capability to track employee movements through its app with the goal of preventing illness spread.
2. Temperature checks could become part of daily life, monitoring individuals before they board flights, attend sporting events or even enter their offices. Already, the meat company Tyson is in the process of installing walk-through temperature scanners at plants to prevent workers with a fever from entering the facilities, and the scanners could be a permanent fixture of the company. Toyota may also enact on-site health screenings for workers on the medical-supply production line that could be expanded to auto production in the future, according to the report, and Disney is considering the same for attendees to its theme parks. Guests at the recently reopened Shanghai Disney are already required to submit to temperature checks and show a QR code from the government that identifies them as virus-free.
3. Blood testing for antibodies is more intrusive, but it is another option companies are considering for their workers to lower the risk of another wave of the coronavirus. Both Toyota and General Motors report that antibody testing is among the options they're considering for their employees.
4. Cashless transactions are likely to accelerate, even in the traditional retail space. People are already familiar with cashless transactions for online purchases, and now that could become the norm for retail stores or purchasing food at large events in a grab-and-go model. Amazon has already launched cashless transaction stores: Its Amazon Go stores allow customers to walk in, remove their desired items, and then walk out of the store. The Amazon Go app tracks the items they select and charges their accounts when they leave, according to CNBC.
5. Face masks and face shields will be crucial for companies, whether in the healthcare space or not. This will require manufacturing more masks and shields on a larger scale, including 3D printing. People attending sporting or entertainment events and large gatherings or entering an open-plan office may need face masks in the future.
More articles on healthcare:
Mayo Clinic develops EHR tool to track contact between employees and COVID-19 exposure
Amazon opens COVID-19 'data lake' to hospitals
HCA, Google Cloud create COVID-19 data-sharing platform: 6 details