Dubai airport deploys dogs to sniff coronavirus

In the UAE, all arriving passengers must submit to COVID-19 testing prior to their trips and show negative results to be admitted into the country.

From this week, Dubai International Airport (DXB) started using police dogs for on-airport rapid COVID-19 testing, which reportedly can produce results in minutes with 92 percent accuracy.

Specially-trained dogs have already proven effective in sniffing out diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, diabetes, cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Now, the UAE says it is the first in the world to use K9 police dogs to detect the COVID-19 virus.

In a statement, Dubai’s Ministry of Interior (MoI) said, "Data and studies showed that detection of presumed Covid-19 cases achieved approximately 92 percent in overall accuracy. Figures indicate that dogs can quickly detect infected cases, help protect key sites, effectively deal with huge crowds and secure large events, airports, etc.”

The Dubai Health Authority (DHA), along with the teams of dogs and trainers deployed at the airports, screens every possibly-infected passenger. A scent sample is collected of the passenger from the armpit, which is presented to the canine in an isolated room. The specially-trained sniffer dogs generally detect the virus within seconds. Thus, no direct contact happens between the passenger and the dog.