At the Blumar Salmon Plant in Talcahuano, they have decided to track coronavirus efficiently. With more than 700 workers at a food processing plant that has not stopped during the pandemic, security measures are being strengthened to prevent Covid-19 transmission.

The most recent measure was the incorporation of Corona Tracer, an autonomous device in a small format, used during working hours measuring, for 14 days, the distance and interaction between people.

Maribel Varela, Head of Safety and Occupational Health at Blumar, commented that Corona Tracer is a physical means of verifying contacts of employees in their work environment, to perform demonstrable traceability of people with whom they have interacted in case of testing positive for Covid-19. “With Dutch technology, the device stores information from the contact network, allows measuring and recording the contact time between workers at less than 1.5 meters distance to provide a security chain that allows timely disclosure of who would have been at risk of contact”.

It was created in Europe with focus for use in factories, warehouses, distribution centers, hospitals, offices and similar facilities and is not intended to be used by consumers in public spaces. It uses 2.4 GHz Bluetooth wireless technology, and the same frequency as WiFi.

In simple terms, it is a proximity sensor. If this occurs, a unique code is exchanged between the two devices, which represents an event. If those two (or more) people remain in this position for an extended period, a new event will be generated every 10 seconds and stored in the devices, recording very valuable information for tracking in case of transmission.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, we had to face an outbreak and it was very difficult, as an entire shift had to go into quarantine. Fortunately, the incident was overcome and every day our teams work hard to review protocols and implement new measures that allow for care and transparency. This device serves to have control of traceability, respecting the privacy of all workers. This way we all work more peacefully”, highlighted Fernanda Taboada, Manager of the Blumar Talcahuano Salmon Plant.

The sensor has already been distributed to all workers at the Talcahuano Salmon Plant, administration building, and contractor staff.