As stay-at-home orders across the country have begun to ease, more and more businesses are opening up. Doing it safely is top of mind for all business owners, and regular employee temperature checks – unheard of just a few short months ago – are now pretty much par for the course.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has provided guidance on how employers and businesses can safely conduct temperature checks. While not every state has issued an Executive Order to screen employees’ temperatures before they enter the workplace, some states are now requiring employers to conduct them on all employees. According to The National Law Forum, Colorado, for example, requires certain critical and noncritical businesses to conduct daily temperature checks and monitor employees’ symptoms, and employers with 50 or more employees at one location must put stations in place for symptom screenings and temperature checks.
Other states such as Indiana require all employers to implement a COVID-19 response plan, which includes implementing a health screening process for employees that may include regular temperature checks. Additionally, employers may be subject to different temperature check requirements based on industry. Washington, for instance, requires construction contractors to screen all workers at the beginning of their shift by taking their temperature and asking them if they have symptoms. Any worker who has a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher has to be sent home. It’s critically important for employers to keep a careful watch on evolving state and local guidelines to see if and when temperature checks are required.
The demand for temperature screening technologies is at a fever pitch, so it’s no surprise that a huge influx of technologies relative to elevated temperature screening have hit the market. It’s been fast and furious and, consequently, there’s been a whole lot of misinformation in the marketplace about these technologies. There are literally hundreds of these solutions out there with costs ranging from the low hundreds to yes, even tens of thousands of dollars.
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