“Disinfecting Tunnels” Are Headed To Supermarkets In Post-COVID World

A French company had the ingenious idea of ​​designing a disinfecting tunnel that could soon appear at the entrance of supermarkets and or other commercial areas. 

“Customers enter it with their cart and then the product is sprayed on it,” Pierre Nicoletti, the manager of Alineair, the French-based company handling the design and production of the tunnels, told La Voix du Nord. 

Nicoletti posted a short video on Facebook Wednesday (May 13) detailing how the tunnel works:

The tunnel sprays a fine mist of water and nitrogen, Nicoletti said, adding that the mist is “harmless” and “allows surface disinfection of more than 99%”.

In pre-corona times, Alineair designed street furniture, saw its business freeze when the French government initiated lockdowns several months ago as COVID-19 cases and deaths soared. The company, he said, had to reinvent itself and seize the moment in developing a product to combat the virus spread. 

“Until two months ago, no one had worked on this type of equipment. I say that without judgment, but in France, we are not the most hygienic, and there was no demand,” he said. 

At the moment, there are more than “400 tunnels” being produced at Alineair, notes AFP News. The company is waiting on government approval in the coming weeks to deliver the tunnels to local businesses. With surging demand, the company might have to expand its 15 strong workforce to boost output as these tunnels will likely be in hot demand as Europe attempts to reopen. 

Not entirely the same but similar concept, we showed in early April how a supermarket in Philadelphia was dumping shopping carts into vats of disinfecting solutions to limit the transmission of the virus.

Supermarkets are quickly evolving in a post-corona world. Cashiers at another Philadelphia supermarket were recently spotted in plastic tents to protect themselves from potential virus carriers. 

The entrance of a supermarket or any other business could soon have disinfecting tunnels and thermal checks.