Customer Deanna Arthur of Alhambra has her temperature taken by Sophia Huang, a supervisor at Sichuan Impression restaurant in Alhambra. Mel Melcon | Getty Images

Different approaches

Companies are taking different approaches with temperature screenings. At Walmart and Amazon, the temperature checks will be on-site. Walmart is sending infrared thermometers to all facilities. Designated managers trained in federal health privacy laws will take employees' temperatures. They will send employees home if they have a temperature of 100.0 degrees or higher. Those employees will not be able to return to work until they're fever-free for at least three days. Bartlett said the company is encouraging employees to check their temperatures at home until screenings start at their facility. Along with taking temperatures, the company will do a basic health screening of employees, such as asking about travel, exposure or other symptoms, such as coughing or feeling achy. At Amazon, temperature checks will be rolled out to all U.S. and European facilities, including warehouses and Whole Foods grocery stores, by early next week. The company said it's already started them at some U.S. sites. Employees who have a temperature that's higher than 100.4 degrees will be sent home and asked to stay home until they're fever free for three days.

B.J.'s Wholesale Club said that over the coming weeks, it will begin checking temperatures of all employees at its 218 stores when they report to work. All employees will enter through a designated entrance where the company will check their temperatures. The company said in a news release that it will also start providing masks and gloves for employees who want to wear them. At Home Depot, the approach is different. Employees are receiving a company-provided thermometer to hold up to their forehead. If they have a fever — particularly of 100.4 or higher, the CDC's cutoff — they're asked to stay home, company spokeswoman Sara Gorman said. Starbucks is sending thermometers to all company-operated stores for employees who would like to "self-monitor their temperature as added reassurance before they start their shift," Rossann Williams, the chain's executive vice president of the U.S. company-operated business and Canada, wrote in a letter to employees Wednesday. She said the temperature checks are voluntary. All of the retailers have encouraged employees who don't feel well to stay home, too, by adding or expanding their paid time off policies. Walmart and Amazon also said this week that they will provide masks for employees, who can choose whether to wear them.

'False security' or 'Better than nothing'?

Medical professionals have warned about the limits of temperature checks — particularly since the coronavirus can silently spread. The director of the CDC, Dr. Robert Redfield, said in a National Public Radio interview broadcast on Tuesday that as many as 25% of people infected with COVID-19 may not show any symptoms. Some studies have indicated that percentage could be even higher. Dr. Ghazala Sharieff, chief medical officer at San Diego-based Scripps Health, said some have urged her hospital system to screen doctors, nurses and other employees with temperature checks. She said she's opposed to the tool because it can be inaccurate from a distance and create "false security." "Any medical person will tell you that's actually not a great screening," she said. "If you just pop some Advil or Tylenol, you can get through the screen because you want to come to work." Instead, she recommends employers and employees look out for one another and watch for possible signs and symptoms. "You see somebody coughing, you ought to tell somebody and go home," she said. "More of that kind of relationship is more important." Dr. David Hindin, a general surgeon and an academic fellow at Stanford University who studies health technology innovation, acknowledged the temperature screenings can be faulty. Some patients, for example, don't spike a fever right away — or never do. Still, he said "it's better than nothing" for essential workers who must continue to commute and interact with others. He recommended employers couple temperature checks with screening for other symptoms, such as asking employees if they have a cough or fatigue. He said he's opposed to using temperature checks to justify the reopening of nonessential businesses, such as movie theaters or restaurants. "If they're using that as a decision point to open up earlier, then I don't think it holds as much water," he said.

Screening customers