Disneyland could institute temperature screenings at security checkpoints in order to meet health guidelines and make visitors feel safe following the coronavirus closure of the Anaheim theme park, according to Disney officials.
In an interview with Barron’s, Disney executive chairman Bob Iger discussed how security precautions at Disney theme parks could change after the coronavirus crisis.
“Just as we now do bag checks for everybody that goes into our parks, it could be that at some point we add a component of that that takes people’s temperatures, as a for-instance,” Iger told Barron’s.
Disney is preparing for a post-COVID-19 world where theme park visitors demand more scrutiny in order to feel safe, Iger said in the Barron’s interview.
“Even if it creates a little bit of hardship, like it takes a little bit longer for people to get in,” Iger told Barron’s.
Temperature screenings are currently required of visitors entering the partially reopened Shanghai Disney resort and other public places in China.
“We’re studying very carefully what China has been trying to do in terms of their return to normalcy,” Iger told Barron’s. “And one of the things that’s obvious is they’ve conscripted a large segment of their population to monitor others in terms of their health. You can’t get on a bus or a subway or a train or enter a high-rise building there — and I’m sure this will be the case when their schools reopen — without having your temperature taken.”
Iger anticipates Disney theme parks will be a place “for the public to enjoy and escape to” after the COVID-19 crisis.
“One of the things that we’re discussing already is that in order to return to some semblance of normal, people will have to feel comfortable that they’re safe,” Iger told Barron’s. “Some of that could come in the form ultimately of a vaccine, but in the absence of that it could come from basically, more scrutiny, more restrictions.”