How sniffer dogs could help with the coronavirus crisis

Specially trained sniffer dogs could help identify carriers of Covid-19 and help control the spread of the disease, according to scientists in the UK.

Sniffing out coronavirus Location: Milton Keynes, England These dogs could soon aid the fight against COVID-19 by sniffing out cases of coronavirus within seconds Researchers hope to put canines on the frontlines to identify carriers of the infection in a bid to control the spread of the disease (SOUNDBITE) (English) DOCTOR CLAIRE GUEST, CEO OF MEDICAL DETECTION DOGS SAYING: "Once the dogs are reliably indicating coronavirus on an individual, these dogs could go out into public places.

Now this would be particularly useful when we all start coming out of our homes because we want to be able to control the rate in which coronavirus re-spreads.

Now a dog could screen, a team of five dogs could screen four and a half thousand people a day, targeting those individuals that need to quickly be tested and go back into isolation perhaps because they are asymptomatic super-spreaders.

This is what can be really concerning." They hope to get the pups trained in just six weeks by teaching them to sniff samples of the virus and raise the alarm when they have found it