Stores in Italy are using robots to screen customers for mask wearing and high temperatures before they can go inside as the country reopens

Robot in Turin pharmacy.Photo by Stefano Guidi/Getty Images

• A pharmacy in Turin implemented thermo scanning robots to check customers for safe temperatures and mask-wearing.
• Italy was one of the hardest-hit countries by the coronavirus, and was the epicenter of the infection for most of March.
• Now, Italy is easing lockdown restrictions and entering Phase 2 of its strategy.
• These measures could provide a look at what reopening might look like in the US, which now has the most cases.
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As Italy slowly starts to reopen from its strict lockdown, the country is using robots to facilitate the opening.

After recording its lowest death toll since the beginning of the lockdown on March 10, Italy entered Phase 2 of its lockdown. Daily new cases peaked on March 21 with 6,550. Now, lockdown measures are easing, and Italians are allowed to move about slightly more freely.

Under Phase 2, they are allowed to travel within the same region and visit relatives without showing special documentation, exercise outside, hold funerals with 15 or fewer attendees, and reopen bike and scooter shops to alleviate demand on public transportation.

Schools, movie theaters, and nonessential shops will remain closed for now, but an additional 4.5 million people have returned to work, mostly in the manufacturing industry.

Shops that are open, like pharmacies and grocery stores, need to avoid becoming sources of new infection if Italy remains on track to open bars and restaurants in June. One pharmacy in Turin is using thermo scanners and robots to keep people with COVID-19 out of the store.

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