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Disney executive chairman Bob Iger said the company may take temperatures of its guests when the park eventually reopens after the COVID-19 pandemic.
What happened:
- Iger told Barron’s that he thinks temperature checks will help people feel more comfortable with returning to theme parks, especially since they know that people won’t be worried about the coronavirus spreading there.
- Iger said: “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. 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. 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 said Disney is studying what China has done in regard to letting people return to normalcy. Just this week, Wuhan, the city that was the epicenter of the outbreak, just returned to normalcy this week.
- Iger said: “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 said major tragedies often have an impact on regulations. He specifically mentioned 9/11 changed the way people entered the park, and the more could be said for this upcoming month.
- Iger said: “Just as the case after 9/11 where people ultimately lived with the notion that in order for them to enter a building, if you’re in an office building you have to show a picture ID or get your picture taken and be screened. Or in order to enter a park you have to put your bags out there to be checked and you go through some kind of metal detector. Or certainly what’s going on in airports with the TSA.”
Some context:
- Disney closed down Disneyland and California Adventure in California and Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando back in March after the coronavirus pandemic. The closures were expected to last until the end of March.
- But, as the Deseret News reported, Disney announced the park closures will last longer than expected. The parks said they will remain closed indefinitely.