Dogs are now being trained to detect whether passengers at Helsinki airport have been infected with COVID 19, according to the Finnish Broadcasting Company.
According to the news service, Evidensia, a Finnish network of veterinary clinics and hospitals, will pay the trainers’ wages and the costs of training 16 dogs after failing to get public funding.
“As the coronavirus testing queues are only getting longer and the situation is getting worse, we saw it as our obligation to get involved, Virpi Perälä, a Communications Director at Evidensia, told Finnish Broadcasting Company.
Initial results have been promising. Already within the first two weeks, seven of the first 16 dogs chosen managed to detect the coronavirus scent from a skin wipe sample. They will start work at hospital testing centres in September.