How some hotels are using technology to mitigate COVID-19

The Westin Houston Medical Center’s LightStrike robot uses UV light to disinfect hotel rooms. Image: The Westin Houston Medical Center via AFP Relaxnews

Thermal cameras and robots. These are some of the high-tech ways hotels are trying to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Along with closing their nightclubs, theaters and buffets at their Las Vegas and Boston locations, Wynn Resorts has installed non-invasive thermal cameras at all their entrances to gauge guest and staff temperatures as they enter the properties.

CEO Matt Maddox also announced that staff will heed the advice for social distancing and create the appropriate distancing between guests at gaming tables and devices and dining tables.

“Every scientific and health authority I’ve spoken to has focused on the need for social distancing, which is to say, creating sufficient space between each of us to impede the spread of the coronavirus.  This isn’t simply a good idea. It is essential, and not forever, but certainly for now,” Maddox said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Westin Houston Medical Center in Houston has dispatched “germ-zapping robots” to sanitize and disinfect guest rooms and common areas throughout the property.

Developed by epidemiologists, LightStrike is described as a robot that uses intense pulsed xenon (a noble gas) ultraviolet light to destroy viruses, bacteria and fungi. The robot is being used to destroy microscopic bacteria and viruses that may have been missed during the manual cleaning process. CL /ra

RELATED STORIES:

Last of Apple’s 42 stores in China reopen

Porn sites offer free viewing of videos amid coronavirus outbreak