Some families have received digital thermometers from the San Diego Unified School District as the district began its effort to distribute thousands of the tools that were donated.
SDUSD said it was given 10,000 thermometers by Kinsa, a health technology company. The district began to give out the medical tools on Monday at five different schools during its daily food distribution.
“We want to put thermometers into the hands of our families so they can monitor temperatures at home,” said Candace Gyure, a Hoover High School nurse. “I think everyone is starting to realize now that fevers can be one of the earliest signs of illness so we want families to be able to monitor the temperatures of their family members of the household to kind of track their health and wellness.”
The thermometers can be used orally, rectally or underarm. These digital thermometers are quicker than the traditional tools and can be linked with an app that tracks data of a family’s temperature.
“It’s more important than ever so we can try to control and limit the spread of COVID-19,” Gyure said. “But really, it’s information that we can carry forward during cold and flu season as well. It’s information you can carry over once to when things get back to normal, whatever that looks like, our new normal.”
Fevers are among one of the symptoms of COVID-19. Other symptoms include shortness of breath, coughing, fatigue, loss of smell or taste, congestion, nausea or vomiting, headache and diarrhea.
The school district will be giving more digital thermometers away to families during its food distribution on Aug. 24. It is unclear how many of the tools are left.
