Pakistan deploys coronavirus-sniffing dogs at airport

ISLAMABAD: In order to identify Covid-19 infected passengers entering Pakistan from abroad, the authorities on Tuesday announced to deploy dogs at New Islamabad Airport to sniff out passengers possibly infected with the coronavirus, ARY News reported, citing sources.

Dogs specially trained to detect Covid-19 among passengers will be deployed from May 12 (tomorrow) as part of a trial at New Islamabad Airport.

Pakistan Army will provide specially trained dogs to airport authorities as approval in this regard has been approved by the administration.

Besides the deployment of sniffing dogs, a four-member team of the health ministry will also be deployed at the airport from tomorrow where they will take samples of suspected Covid-19 inbound passengers.

The decision to deploy sniffing dogs was taken after several cases of fake Covid-19 reports from inbound passengers reported from different airports of Pakistan.

According to a study published in the University of Helsinki, dogs can detect coronavirus in humans five days before they develop symptoms.

Taking notice of inbound passengers travelling to Pakistan on fake PCR Test results, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) yesterday issued new directives to all airlines operating to and from Pakistan.

The authority has directed airlines to ensure all passengers traveling to Pakistan possess PCR Test results only from respective government-approved labs.

The CAA in its new order had directed airlines to accept only original test results prior to checking in passengers for flights to Pakistan.