With over a million South Africans returning to work in May as the country starts to gradually lift lockdown restrictions, new measures will need to be put in place in offices and stores around the country. This does not only include the use of masks and additional hygiene practices, but also additional screening of staff and patrons.
Stef du Plessis, Managing Director of Osiris Technical Systems, specialist in access control and asset management solutions, shares the ways the COVID-19 pandemic may affect your workplace when it comes to security and access control, and how digitisation can support this.
Temperature screening of staff and patrons
Detailed regulations in line with the government’s risk-adjusted strategy are still being finalised and are subject to changes and updates. However, current public documents make mention of temperature screening of staff and patrons for alert levels two through five.
“This means that many businesses may need to integrate temperature screening into their existing access control systems, such as identity screening for visitors at building entrances,” says Du Plessis.
“Fortunately, there are temperature screening tools that can easily integrate with existing systems at a relatively low cost. If your systems are due for an upgrade, or if you need to implement an access control system for the first time, it may make sense to look at devices that include no-contact temperature scanning capabilities,” says Du Plessis.
No-touch solutions
Du Plessis adds the pandemic is likely to shape other systems and technologies in the public and work spheres, not just in the immediate future, but also going forward. “Regularly sanitising commonly touched surfaces helps to curb the spread of the coronavirus. A better solution is to avoid the need for physical touch altogether. One way to do this when it comes to managing assets or product inventory is through radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions,” he says.
“There are myriad RFID solutions available – tags can be attached or embedded in everything from clothing labels to tyres to livestock, and some can be read from a distance of up to 10 metres. This not only reduces transmission risks by reducing the number of people who need to handle an object, but is also a way to manage your assets or inventory in a more accurate way,” he adds.
Contact tracing
“Accurate records of who has visited a particular site will be important to help facilitate contact tracing in the event of any confirmed COVID-19 cases,” says Du Plessis. “Digitising your access control not only improves accuracy, but also makes finding information much easier and improves the experience for your visitors and staff.”
For more information about automatic identification, access control and asset management solutions, contact Osiris Technical Systems at info@osiris.co.za or 0861 674 747.
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