Many businesses are now required to take the temperatures of customers and employees under state reopening guidelines, reports NBC 7’s Artie Ojeda.
As local businesses begin to reopen under strict state and local guidelines, many customers and employees are seeing significant changes, including mandatory temperature checks at some locations.
Currently, grocery stores are not required to measure the temperatures of customers. But at Zion Market in Kearny Mesa, a security guard is using an infra-red device to take the temperatures of customers before they’re allowed inside.
Customers must have a temperature lower than the CDC recommended threshold of 100.4 degrees.
“I think it’s necessary, I think they should be doing it everywhere to be honest. I mean, it takes a second for them to measure our temperature, and I think when you’re in the store, just knowing there’s nobody else that might be sick, I think it gives you reassurance so, I think it’s good,” said Vanessa Pearce of Spring Valley.
As of last Friday, when they were allowed to reopen, golf courses are required to measure the temperatures of players before they can hit the links.
At the Coronado Municipal Golf Course, temperatures are measured as customers pull into the parking lot and sit in their cars. Only after getting an acceptable reading, are they allowed to park.
Local
Private businesses are also required to measure the temperatures of their employees. Some have already been doing for some time. At Truvian, a health care diagnostic company in the UTC area, a temperature check station has been set up in the lobby for its 42 employees. Employees self-take their temperature, and then it's confirmed by a coworker.
Most companies are using an infra-red device, which some have called into question because it measures only skin temperature and not internal temperature. Some also question the reliability of temperature to predict a positive case of coronavirus because of possible not-yet-symptomatic cases.
But for shoppers at Zion Market, they seemed more content knowing the temperature reading offers peace of mind.
“It shows that they’re paying attention to the welfare of both their employees and their customers, and doing what they can to try and control the spread of the virus,” said Gordon Brown of Mira Mesa.
