SAN FRANCISCO: Amazon.com has started to use thermal cameras at its warehouses to speed up screening for feverish workers who could be infected with the coronavirus, employees told Reuters.
The cameras in effect measure how much heat people emit relative to their surroundings. They require less time and contact than forehead thermometers, earlier adopted by Amazon, workers said.
Cases of the virus have been reported among staff at more than 50 of Amazon’s US warehouses. That has prompted some workers to worry for their safety and walk off the job. Unions and elected officials have called on Amazon to close buildings down.
The use of cameras, previously unreported, shows how America’s second-biggest corporate employer is exploring methods to contain the virus’ spread without shuttering its warehouses.
US states have given Amazon the green light to deliver goods with nearly all the country under stay-at-home orders.
In France, Amazon has closed six of its fulfillment centers temporarily — one of the biggest fallouts yet from a dispute with workers over the risks of coronavirus contagion.
Companies that have explored using the thermal cameras include Tyson Foods and Intel. The camera systems, which garnered widespread use at airports in Asia after the SARS epidemic in 2003, can cost between $5,000 and $20,000.
FASTFACT
$20 k - Temperature-scanning cameras can cost between $5,000 and $20,000.
Amazon has set up the hardware for the thermal cameras in at least six warehouses outside Los Angeles and Seattle, where the company is based, according to employees and posts on social media.
Thermal cameras will also replace thermometers at worker entrances to many of Amazon’s Whole Foods stores, according to a recent staff note seen by Reuters and previously reported by Business Insider.
The company performs a second, forehead thermometer check on anyone flagged by the cameras to get an exact temperature, a worker said. An international standard requires the extra check, though one camera system maker said the infrared scan is more accurate.
Early this month, Amazon said it would offer face masks and start checking hundreds of thousands of people for fevers daily at all its US and European warehouses. Associates walk up to a Plexiglas screen, and an employee on the other side scans their forehead through a small hole.
That process has not been without challenges. A worker performing temperature checks in Houston said his proximity to associates made him uncomfortable, in spite of the screen separating them. “I didn’t sign up for this,” he said.
