Twin Cities company marketing screening devices to return people to work safely

As companies begin slowly reopening across Minnesota and professional sports teams consider their own plans to start or restart seasons, a Twin Cities firm says it's ready to help.

"The mission of our company is to help people get back to work and play," says Zarir Erani, president of VenueScreen. The company is marketing screening devices and personnel to help businesses like manufacturing companies or sports stadiums open to employees and fans safely.

"Before they enter that venue, what we want to do is screen them and make sure they're not showing a fever," Erani says of the companies using the technology now, including a Cambria plant in LeSeuer. "Most of them walk through just fine because they're not ill and don't have a fever. Anyone that shows an elevated temperature we pull aside and do additional screening protocols on them."

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The company can either provide screeners to work with the equipment or train employees of the company to use them. Erani says it's cheaper for a company to screen employees before they get inside and expose other employees and force a temporary closure.

Now ValueScreen is also negotiating with professional sports teams about using their screeners for incoming crowds.

"We already have screening in place for security, you're familiar with that," Erani says. "You go to a Twins game or a Vikings game, you're going to go through security screening, you got to have the clear bags and what not. This thing is going to be non-invasive for the most part because it can actually measure the temperature of 16 people at a time in half a second."

He says it's also accurate within a half-degree.

However, we won't find out how it will work on a game day until sports season start and fans are allowed in.