Video: UAE to use dogs to detect Covid cases at major events

Authorities in the UAE have launched a special mobile unit of police dogs trained to detect Covid-19 cases. The Ministry of Interior announced the launch on Wednesday.

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The unit will be deployed at major events. Detection of potential cases is done without direct contact between the dogs and suspected cases.

The police dogs screen for potentially infected people using small scent samples collected through an armpit swab. Samples are presented to the dog in specialised medical kits inside the vehicle. The dog then sniffs out the possible positive cases.

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MOI mobile unit to detect Covid-19 using police dogs#_19
#_#Covid19https://t.co/BQBGDL0Z9a pic.twitter.com/dXuhb0jyIZ

— MOIUAE (@moiuae) March 10, 2021

The special unit supports the efforts of frontline healthcare staff, the ministry added.

The UAE has been using sniffer dogs at multiple entry points to detect cases of Covid-19 among travellers. The Ministry of Interior earlier said the K9 dogs have been deployed in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah airports, and at the Ghuwaifat border point.

A study conducted in the UAE last year showed a high accuracy rate of trained dogs in Covid-19 detection. From a sample of 1,000 participants at Covid-19 screening centres, the study showed a 98 per cent correlation between the PCR test results and the detections by the dogs.