The dogs sniffing out Covid-19 at airports

Airports have implemented safety measures to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, including temperature checks, cleaning robots and health apps. A recent trial used sniffer dogs to identify passengers with the virus. Dogs have up to 100,000 times the smelling sensitivity of humans, meaning our canine friends could be a helpful addition to Covid-19 screening measures at airports.

As airports slowly begin a return to regular service as national Covid-19 measures lessen and international safe travel country lists are drawn up, airports have been implementing various Covid-19 testing methods to mitigate the spread of the virus.

Complementing the likes of temperature checks and enforced Covid-19 testing, a new method is being trialled to identify passengers who test positive for the virus; the use of medical detection dogs. A canine screening trial recently took place with six dogs trained by charity Medical Detection Dogs to recognise the smell which is produced by people with Covid-19.

During the trial the dogs were able to correctly identify 88% of Covid-19 cases; however they also incorrectly flagged 16% of people who tested negative. The research is at an early stage which could see these false positives figures improving over time.