Finland: Visitors to Helsinki airport can get "nCoV test" results without using a cotton swab, thanks to a dog that specializes in sniffing the virus.

Over the past few months, many international airports have adopted different methods to determine whether passengers are infected with Covid-19, including saliva or nasal discharge tests and body temperature measurements.

After landing at the airport, passengers will be invited to pick up a neck tissue to collect sweat samples and put in a box.

Researchers say dogs can detect a patient with nCoV in 10 seconds and the whole process takes just a minute.

Dogs are known for having a keen sense of smell, and have long been used at airports to sniff out bombs, drugs and other contraband in luggage.

"They seem to be doing very well," she said.

In July, researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover in Germany also found that after a week of training, dogs were able to distinguish saliva samples from people infected with nCoV from samples of people who were not infected with a success rate 94.

Dogs do not appear to be susceptible to nCoV infection.

Sniffers are trained to recognize the smell of the virus, and detect the virus by smelling urine or sweat samples, according to the University of Helsinki veterinary department.

Wise Nose, a Finnish scent detection organization, has partnered with the department to train 16 dogs, of which four started working at Helsinki airport this week.

"Every dog can be trained to detect nCoV, but not all will work at the airport," says Virpi Perala, Evidensia's representative, the network of hospitals and veterinary clinics that sponsor

Researchers also agree with this opinion.

"We know how they smell, of course they smell it, but we don't know what they smell," she said.

American scientists are investigating whether people infected with nCoV secrete a specific substance that dogs can detect.