Sanitization Walk-Through Gates During COVID-19 Pandemic: Effective or A False Sense of Protection?

Abstract

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has spread globally to more than 200 countries with more than 5 million confirmed cases. World Health Organization and other global public health organizations have issued guidelines to prevent the community spread of virus. These include basic measures like repeated hand washing, social distancing, and cough etiquettes. Advice regarding disinfection of surfaces have also bee circulated. Due to the infodemic and misinformation public and even institutions particularly in the developing world have adopted certain unproven measure which have the potential to do more harm than good. We describe one such measure being commonly used called Sanitization walk through gate or anti-viral gate. We discuss how this tool is totally ineffective in protecting against the spread of COVID-19 and only offers a false sense of security. There are concerns that such measure may discourage public to forgo the established and recommended practices in favor of these strategies.