UAE. In one of the most innovative approaches yet to ensuring passenger safety in the COVID-19 era, Dubai International Airport (DXB) has introduced coronavirus-sniffing dogs.
Passengers take a swab of their own scent (from their armpit), which is then sent for a rapid-fire COVID-19 ‘sniff-test’ that is claimed to have 92% accuracy.
The dogs, in an isolated room, then sniff the samples. They have been trained to sit down if they pick up traces of the coronavirus. Results are made available within minutes.
[Click on the YouTube icon to view the Emirates News Agency film on coronavirus-sniffing dogs at DXB]
The test is designed to act as a second layer of detection, to supplement the compulsory negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) swab test certificate (taken within 96 hours of travel) that all passengers travelling to Dubai must have before being accepted on any inbound flight. Other test certificates, including antibody tests and home-testing kits, are not accepted in the emirate.
Dogs have up to 300 million smell receptors, compared to six million in humans, according to the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. The school launched a pilot training programme utilising scent detection dogs to discriminate between samples from COVID-19 positive and COVID-19 negative patients in April.
