Heathrow to Test Temperature Screening Technology for Covid-19 Detection
London’s Heathrow Airport is getting ready to trial technologies and processes that reduce risk of coronavirus transmission, in an aim to form the basis of a Common International Standard for health screening at all global airports.
“The aim of the collective measures being trialled is to reduce the risk of contracting or transmitting Covid-19 while travelling,” the airport said in an announcement.
The first of these trials will be a temperature screening technology which uses camera detection systems capable of monitoring the temperatures of people moving through the airport. These passenger-facing trials will first be conducted in the airport’s immigration halls. If successful, the equipment will then be rolled out to departures, connections and colleague search areas. The trials will begin in the next two weeks in Terminal 2.
The other concepts to be reviewed as part of the Heathrow trials include UV sanitation, which could be used to quickly and efficiently sanitise security trays, and contact-free security screening equipment to reduce person-to-person contact.
According to the announcement, before any new measures are rolled out across the airport, they will be reviewed to ensure medical effectiveness, passenger response as well as suitability to the airport environment.
“The UK has the world’s third largest aviation sector offering the platform for the Government to take a lead in agreeing a Common International Standard for aviation health with our main trading partners. This Standard is key to minimising transmission of Covid-19 across borders, and the technology we are trialling at Heathrow could be part of the solution,” Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said.
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