Fast food cooks and couriers in China are giving their temperature readings to customers

Meituan

• People who order fast food in China will be told the body temperature of the people who prepared and delivered their meals.

• The coronavirus outbreak has prompted fast food chains to change how they serve food to customers.

• Many customers are opting for "contactless" delivery and ordering by screen.

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Along with a speedy meal, those who order fast food in China are now given the names and body temperature readings of the people who cooked and delivered it.

As the deadly coronavirus continues to spread throughout the world, some restaurants have launched "contactless" services. Customers either order by phone, or have their temperatures checked before ordering an in-store touch screen that is regularly disinfected.

Now, a delivery driver arrives with their meal, there will be a small green card attached to the bag. The temperature readings are intended to assure customers that nobody with a fever come in contact with their food.

Yum China Holdings Inc. runs franchises of American fast food chains like KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut in China.

The company's CEO told CNN's David Culver that staff has been holding crisis meetings since the end of January on how to adapt to the outbreak.

"What's the best way to deal with adversity?" CEO Joey Chui Yung Wat told CNN. "It's to stay calm, protect yourself."

The outbreak is drastically changing food consumption in China.

Meituan, one major delivery provider in China, has about 5.9 million partner retailers. Between January 26 and February 8, more than 80 percent of customers nationwide requested the contactless delivery option.

In Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, 95.1% of all orders had requested the service, according to Meituan date provided to Business Insider's Yuru (Priscilla) Zhu.

Companies have also lost significant business due to the outbreak.

Yum China Holdings Inc., for example, has had to close a third of its nearly 9,200 restaurants, Wat told CNN.

The company also opened six stores in Wuhan just to feed the medical workers, according to Wat.

"Every great company has a soul inside," she said. "Of course we need to learn how to make money, but in a moment like this we need to learn how to not make money, sometimes."

The coronavirus has already killed 2,800 people and infected more than 82,000. Though most of the cases are in mainland China, at least 40 other countries have recorded cases and deaths.

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• We're in an 'age of epidemics,' a scientist says. More diseases like the coronavirus will jump from animals to people.

• The genetic code of the Wuhan coronavirus shows it's 80% similar to SARS. New research suggests a potential way to neutralize the virus.

• Scientists have published over 50 studies on Wuhan coronavirus in the last 3 weeks. They learned that 75,800 people in Wuhan could be infected.

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