The Federal Customs Authority (FCA) and the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) have successfully undertaken a world-first study into deploying trained dogs for the detection of Covid-19.
Under the academic and professional agreement, the parties conducted the first, world-class scientific study to detect the presence of the coronavirus, through the use of customs K9 sniffer dogs.
A joint task force was formed, consisting of experts, researchers and specialists representing HCT and the K9 Unit of the FCA.
The three-phase study, conducted by a joint scientific team from the two organisations, revealed the high rate of accuracy of dogs from the Customs’ K9 Unit in detecting coronavirus-infected patients, from a sample of 1,000 participants at Covid-19 screening centres, within two seconds.
The final results showed a 98 percent correlation between the PCR test results and the detections by customs’ K9 dogs.
Ali Saeed Mattar Al Nayadi, Commissioner of Customs and Chairman of the FCA, said that using K9 sniffer dogs to detect the coronavirus will save effort and time and reduce the pressure for frontline heroes, such as medical cadre and hospitals by 98%, in addition to ensuring budget cost-effectiveness by saving millions of dirhams that can otherwise be used in vital sectors, such as infrastructure, healthcare, education, and security.
The UAE has already approved the administration of the Beijing Institute of Biological Product’s inactivated vaccine, which has an 86 per cent efficacy against Covid-19 infection.