Human-sized thermometers are popping up in Stockton Boulevard restaurants. Here’s why

Mo’ Betta Finger Foods customers are used to being greeted by Monique Webb, the West Tahoe Park soul food restaurant’s gregarious owner, upon walking through the door. Webb’s added a sidekick in the last couple of weeks: a five-foot-tall talking thermometer.

Mo’Betta is one of more than 40 businesses on and around Stockton Boulevard that received complimentary ClearScan G7000 body temperature scanners earlier this month.

Purchased with the city of Sacramento’s CARES Act funding and distributed by the Stockton Boulevard Business Partnership, the ClearScans provide business employees an extra layer of protection against COVID-19 transmission from customers.

As customers hungry for frog legs and alligator nuggets walk into Webb’s small restaurant at 3751 Stockton Blvd., for example, she asks them to address the ClearScan on the left before continuing on to the front counter. The machine scans each person’s face from a couple feet away in three seconds, then announces if their temperature is within the normal range or unusually high.

Masks and glasses can be kept on; in fact, the machine will audibly tell users to don the former if they haven’t already. ClearScans are touchless for customers and don’t require employee operation once set up. The devices rely on facial recognition software; ClearScan did not respond to an inquiry about what happens to any data they may collect.

ClearScans can also be programmed to read out basic information about temperatures and request masks be worn, in Spanish, Vietnamese or Mandarin, which Stockton Boulevard Business Partnership Executive Director Frank Louie said was key for his corridor’s diverse clientele.

Other viruses frequently cause fevers as well, making the ClearScans practical even once COVID-19 herd immunity is reached, Louie said. He point to the United States’ mild flu season in 2020, which experts attribute in part to people wearing masks and socially distancing. behaviors.

“I think that this is going to be the new normal,” Louie said. “This is going to work wonderful for our businesses ... this tool is going to be impactful because it just takes a layer of security off of their checklist.”

The ClearScans don’t cost businesses anything, and might catch some coronavirus-positive customers walking through the door. But given that COVID-19 carriers can be asymptomatic, they’re hardly a panacea.

Webb will still keep a box of masks at the front door for customers who forget theirs, and Mo’Betta won’t reopen for indoor dining even if partial occupancy is allowed once again, she said.

“You don’t know. You don’t know, because everybody (with COVID-19) don’t look sick,” Webb said. “And that’s the problem. You can come in and look fine, but you don’t be fine.”

The city of Sacramento spent $1 million of its $89.6 million CARES Act budget on 500 ClearScans to be distributed through Inclusive Economic Development Collaborative partner organizations like the Stockton Boulevard Business Partnership.

Most devices have gone to restaurants, grocery stores and other essential businesses so far. Restaurants across the region have struggled throughout the pandemic, but those along Stockton Boulevard have been particularly battered, Louie said.

Al fresco dining, a lifeline for restaurants in tonier neighborhoods throughout the pandemic, is rarely seen along Stockton Boulevard because of the avenue’s sizable homeless population and role as a major car thoroughfare.

There have been complaints that businesses in lower-income communities were overlooked for past city assistance programs such as zero-interest loans. Meanwhile, of Sacramento County’s 54 zip codes, all four with 3,000 or more COVID-19 cases are in south Sacramento or Elk Grove, according to county data.

“We still need a lot of financial assistance for a lot of our small businesses that are still struggling to this day,” Louie said. “We’re trying to get them the help they need to help rebuild their businesses. It remains a work in progress, but we’re very grateful to the city.”

This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 12:59 PM.