RFID sensors for the monitoring of body temperature and respiratory function: A pandemic prospect

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the last year many researchers have focused their efforts on limiting the spread of the virus. Along with the rush in the developing of vaccines, wearable technologies appeared to be excellent candidates for the early detection of infected individuals and the remote monitoring in hospitals and homes, by fostering the reduction of the contacts between caregivers and patients, while ensuring their safety. The wearable and epidermal Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) sensors offer nowadays a wide selection of comfortable devices, able to wirelessly monitor a significant set of physiological parameters. In particular, this short review will focus on the monitoring of body temperature and respiratory function, highly affected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, providing an overview of the current state of the art of RFID sensors, thus envisaging the benefits they can offer for the current and future pandemics.