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Reopening America: Controlling COVID spread through innovation

As businesses and government entities begin to reopen throughout the country, many are looking for the magic wand that allows them to safely bring back employees to interact with clients and customers again. However, there’s no quick fix to reopening following a pandemic. The most important first step you can take is to reevaluate current protocols and create a plan moving forward. There’s no going back to the old normal, we need to create a new normal and a safe space for our future. Once you determine what your immediate needs might be to reopen, you can prioritize the steps you’ll need to take, and by starting small, you will actually get to the end result much quicker. Our experts teamed up with Kognition, a leading expert in AI screening and fever detection, to discuss the innovative tools that are available to clean, detect, verify, and notify amid COVID-19.

In the past, cleaning and sanitation have often taken a backseat when it comes to creating and implementing extensive protocols, particularly when it comes to office buildings and other public spaces. In a post coronavirus world, this is no longer a feasible option. Pennoni’s expertise through our industrial hygienists focus on the cleaning and sanitizing aspect of controlling exposures to the virus. Industrial hygienists anticipate, recognize, evaluate, and control hazards in the workplace including physical hazards such as asbestos, chemical hazards such as benzene, or biological hazards such as viruses. There are several innovative options available that can be used in conjunction with other tools to provide a safe environment that will enable us to return. One option is electrochemical activation technology which uses an electric cell, salt, and tap water to produce two EPA approved solutions, a cleaner and a sanitizer. This is a practical option particularly for institutions that will need to use a large volume of solution per day.

Once your space is sanitized and employees return, it’s just as important to continue to keep them healthy and your space a safe environment. Kognition offers three technologies that can be integrated with current infrastructure including security cameras and badge systems depending on the needs of your building. Touchless entry and intelligent video solutions enable contact tracing and hands-free, secure access to office buildings. Kognition’s AI platform helps identify individuals with elevated skin temperature and proactively sends alerts to those individuals and to staff to help keep workers and visitors safe and facilities virus-free with real time fever detection at entries to buildings. All data collected through these systems are controlled by the client to ensure personal and medical data is secure.

Using these AI technologies, critical contact tracing can lead to targeted sanitation by identifying locations and persons with whom infected individuals have come in contact with. This allows for reassurance that ongoing safety support is being provided as we navigate through reopening measures.

No matter the facility, everyone will want assurances that your space is safe to enter. We are providing “smart solutions” to help with those assurances.

For additional information, watch the full webinar recording below or contact Joe Viscuso at jviscuso@pennoni.com. 

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