BOSTON (CBS) – COVID sniffing police Ok-9s can be in some Massachusetts faculties this week. The one-year-old labs with the Bristol County Sheriff’s Workplace have been skilled to detect COVID-19.
On Wednesday, Huntah and Duke will go to work in Freetown, Lakeville and Norton faculty districts.
“With COVID, whether or not it’s the Omicron, whether or not it’s the Delta, our canines will hit on it,” mentioned Bristol County Capt. Paul Douglas. “And if there’s a brand new variant that comes out in six months, hopefully there isn’t, but when there may be one, COVID is COVID.”
If one of many canines smells COVID on a desk, keyboard or trash barrel, they are going to sit down, alerting workers that the world has been uncovered to the virus and must be cleaned.
“One benefit of COVID is it’s straightforward to destroy,” Douglas mentioned. “It doesn’t like chemical substances. Spray it down, wipe it and it eliminates the virus.”
Fairhaven Faculty Superintendent Tara Kohler is thrilled to have the canines.
“I see it as a terrific alternative for teenagers to acknowledge that we’re doing every little thing we are able to to mitigate the danger and I need them to really feel safe and secure and never anxious about their environment,” Kohler mentioned.
“We’ll go proper into the classroom if the scholars are in there, and our canines really work proper via it,” Douglas mentioned. “They only stroll proper via, they go over the backpacks, across the lecturers.”
The detection program was developed by Florida Worldwide College’s Worldwide Forensic Analysis Institute. Scientists there say the canines are 99% correct in detecting COVID.
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