Helsinki Airport trials sniffer dogs to test passengers for coronavirus

An airport in Finland will use specially trained dogs to sniff out passengers who are infected with coronavirus.

Helsinki Airport will trial the project with 16 dogs trained by Wise Nose, a Finnish smell detection agency, The Independent reported.

The trial comes after the University of Helsinki's Veterinary Faculty demonstrated that trained dogs can smell the virus with almost 100 per cent accuracy.

Passengers will swab their skin with a test wipe and the wipes will be handed over to the dogs to sniff.

The amount of time necessary to identify the virus varies from dog to dog.

The top dog, an eight-year-old greyhound mix Kössi, can perform the test in just 7 minutes.

Anyone identified by the dogs as being infected will be directed to a health information point.

It comes as the NHS is running trials to determine whether dogs can sniff out Covid-19.

A team of 25 volunteers from University College Hospital (UCLH) in Euston are allowing trained “bio-detection dogs” to smell their socks and T-shirts to see if they can detect whether a person has the virus.

Read more

PM warns rules 'could last six months' as weddings capped at 15- LIVE