Indian authorities, including the Central Reserve Police Force and police in the southern state of Kerala, are considering using dogs to sniff out COVID-positive people.
A senior official with the Kerala Police has revealed to Sputnik that law enforcement will train dogs to smell out body odours, by using sweat samples of COVID-positive patients.
Kerala has overtaken the state of Maharashtra in reporting the highest number of COVID cases and deaths in the country.
"Dogs helping in COVID detection can be really helpful with the patient load increasing that is exerting immense pressure on the health infrastructure in the state", a senior Kerala Police official said on condition of anonymity. He also shared that the pilot project is likely to be rolled out soon.
Amrut "Dogguru", a canine psychologist who is adviser to the Indian Railways Police Force, Central Reserve Police Force, told Sputnik, "We are training dogs by using sweat samples as they have the least possibility of passing on infection".
"Dogs have the ability to identify COVID patients with high accuracy. It is important for the handlers to also have high antibodies for COVID," stated Amrut who himself was infected with COVID last August.
