Why Is CCTV/Offsite Monitoring Vital In 2021?

Paula C Cannon
3 min readJan 16, 2021
From google.com

Off-site Monitoring/ CCTV can help save us as the COVID-19 virus outbreak is a major challenge for national resources. Existing technologies and newer ones must be available, and we should pay special attention to Off-site Monitoring/ CCTV, such as thermal cameras.

Viruses are constantly mutating, so it isn’t surprising that the coronavirus that emerged in China in late 2019 underwent significant mutations and spread. But a new strain that has appeared in South Africa is cause for concern. Our nation (South Africa) is proving to be much more transmissible as a variant discovered in the UK in recent months.

While the two strains are more likely to spread, scientists don’t think they are more deadly. However, being more contagious means that more people can become infected, which can mean more serious infections and more deaths.

The Off-site Monitoring/ CCTV ultimate aim

The Chinese government used drones equipped with thermal cameras to monitor Wuhan, China’s original crisis epicenter. Several portable thermal imaging devices are currently being alerted to their potential to protect critical employees. Each has slightly different capabilities and usage patterns. However, all Off-site Monitoring/ CCTV (thermal cameras) devices aim to measure body temperature and possibly identify virus victims based on the resulting readings.

The United States company FLIR, a technology specialist, as reported in the Telegraph, thermal cameras have seen an astounding 700% increase in demand for thermal cameras. The company claims that its cameras can detect changes in skin temperature as low as 0.01 degrees Celsius.

Thermal cameras reliable

According to experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), Frank Pennisi carefully emphasizes that Off-site Monitoring/ CCTV (thermal cameras) can measure the skin temperature and not the internal temperature. Also, COVID-19 has a relatively long incubation period, and not all patients have a fever.

While some organizations are still primarily engaged in operations elsewhere, for example, remote work, many organizations implement strategic physical security solutions, all of which are better protected through off-site surveillance / CCTV intelligence capabilities.

As this new normal takes hold in the business environment, security strategies focus on some key initiatives such as access control, occupancy controls, people counting, temperature screening, reducing office touchpoints, and contact tracing. With the use of Off-site Monitoring/ CCTV in the shadow of COVID-19, occupancy data from this technology can trigger a lockdown and not allow new entrants until occupancy falls below a certain threshold.

There is also a trend towards multi-factor authentication in the security industry, which will dominate in the coming days as it makes solutions more reliable. Costs are coming down, and algorithms improve, so more people are willing to try Off-site Monitoring/ CCTV in South Africa. Now it isn’t just about security. It is health and safety; thus, Off-site CCTV is a perfect platform for solutions.

Lastly, thermal cameras are widely used today in the marine, oil and gas, utility, high security, and critical infrastructure industries to support everything from process safety to offshore threat detection. The coronavirus is a threat to our daily lives, so rapid detection of potentially ill people with Off-site Monitoring/ CCTV is essential to prevent spread in South Africa and worldwide in 2021.

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