Amid growing cases of COVID19 in Mandi district and across Himachal Pradesh, the district administration on Tuesday started automatic thermal screening for effective and contactless screening of visitors to
Deputy Commissioner’s (DC) office. For this, Mandi district tied up with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi to make use of modern technology to check spread of infectious disease and a device was developed for the purpose.

The automatic screening of visitors was started today and the device had been installed on pilot project basis at the entry gate of DC office to ensure contactless entry.

The device had been developed by the team of IIT Mandi researchers Dr Varun Dutt, Dr K V Uday and they would study its efficacy in screening people visiting places with high footfall. IIT Mandi researcher Dr Varun Dutt said the device makes use of infrared sensor and ultrasonic technology to measure the temperature of a person visiting the office.

“When a person comes 1015 cm near the automatic thermal screening device, it would measure his body temperature and will signal blue light if his/her temperature is within normal parameters. But if the temperature of a visitor is 100 degree Fahrenheit or above, the device would indicate red light along with buzzer sound to alert the authorities,” he said, adding high temperature was one of the symptoms of Coronavirus infection. Dutt added the automatic thermal screening device would cost less and it was effective in detecting persons with high body temperatures, resulting in better detection and help check spread of COVID-19 in busy places. DC Mandi Rugved Thakur after launching the device at his office, said the district administration was making efforts to break the chain of Coronavirus for which optimum use of modern technology was being made.

“The device has been installed at the main gate of the DC office on trial basis to check its efficacy which is quite cost effective and can be used easily. If the trial is successful, the device can be installed at places with high footfall of visitors for contactless screening of people,” he said, adding the device will help in reducing the COVID19 infection among others. It is worthwhile to mention here that Mandi DC Rugved Thakur had to remain in isolation along with 5-6 officials after they had come into contact with a BJP leader who had visited his office and tested positive for COVID-19 on 22 July