How the biometrics industry is responding to the world’s current pandemic

With the number of coronavirus(Covid-19) cases reaching more than 90,000 across 73 countries and territories,some virologists are suggesting that the epidemic has now reached the pandemicstage.

The outbreak, which originatedin China late last year, is not only effecting those who catch the disease, butalso the world’s economy.

According to the Organisation forEconomic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the world’s economycould grow at its slowest rate since 2009 this year due to the spread of coronavirus,warning that that a “longer lasting and more intensive” outbreak could halvegrowth to 1.5% in 2020 as factories suspend their activity and workers stay athome to try to contain the virus.

But how does the biometricsindustry play a part in this? According to the Centersfor Disease Control and Prevention, coronavirus is typicallyspread by respiratory droplets from an infected person that land in the mouthsor noses or inhaled into the lungs of people nearby.

Epidemiologists cannot ruleout the possibility that the disease can be spread through touching a surfaceor object that has the virus on it before touching their own mouth, nose oreyes.

Now think about locations likeairports, where thousands of passengers pass through every day — placing theirfingertips on biometric readers in order to go past immigration checkpoints.While these devices are highly effective for security purposes, they could infact be helping the disease to spread.

But it’s not just airportsusing biometric readers. These are common as part of a two-factorauthentication process inside and out of mission-critical public and privateorganisations, and are even used in smaller companies to track employeeattendance.

Whether the concern is aboutspreading the coronavirus or flu, it’s important for places like immigrationcheckpoints to think about the use of contactless authentication processes.

In fact, since the coronavirusoutbreak, Chineseauthorities are now turning to facial recognition cameraswhich allow them to immediately access citizen’s travel histories, potentiallyenhancing their ability to track and control the virus from spreading.

Other biometric choices canalso be considered, including iris, voice, gait and odour — with irisrecognition being the most popular thanks to its speed and accuracy.

Despite the fear and panic inpeople around the globe, it seems that making a change to contactless biometricsolutions could have a huge impact on the spread of the disease, and could evenprevent epidemics turning to pandemics in the future.