Researchers believe dogs can detect COVID-19, and they’re testing the idea at the airport in Helsinki, Finland.
Four dogs are now on the job in a pilot project, The Guardian reports. Several more are being trained to join them.
“It’s very promising,” Anna Hielm-Björkman of the University of Helsinki was quoted saying. “If it works, it could prove a good screening method in other places.” Such places could include hospitals and sporting events.
According to The Guardian: “After collecting their luggage, arriving international passengers are asked to dab their skin with a wipe. In a separate booth, the beaker containing the wipe is then placed next to others containing different control scents – and the dog starts sniffing.”
If the dog alerts handlers to a positive finding, the traveler is asked to take a polymerase chain reaction test via nasal swab.
Scientists in several other countries, including Germany, are also researching the COVID-19-detecting abilities of dogs. Finland is reportedly “the first country in Europe to put dogs to work sniffing out the coronavirus,” The Guardian reports.