Monday, October 5, 2020

Finland Uses COVID-19 Tracking Dogs at Airports

Dogs are animals that are commonly used at border checkpoints or airports. Usually, these dogs are trained to be able to sniff out drugs and other illegal substances. Recently, dogs have also been used to sniff out diseases in humans, such as the corona virus.

Yep, this is believed by the Finnish researchers. Based on preliminary tests, the dogs were able to sniff out the Covid-19 virus in humans with "almost 100%" accuracy, even if the person is not showing any symptoms. At least this is the claim of the Finnish researchers.

When a dog thinks that someone has a virus, it will scream, scratch on the ground, or lie down. After that, the officer will give a PCR test to the suspected person to verify further. This trial was carried out at four airports, including Helsinki, the largest airport.

The idea of using dogs is also not new. In July, dogs in Spain were similarly trained. It is currently unclear what a dog can smell to see an indication of the presence of the coronavirus in a person. It is thought that the cause is sweat, which may smell different from people without the virus.