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Own correspondent
KIGALI: Rwanda has launched a three-month pilot program to test for Covid-19 using sniffer dogs, becoming the first country in Africa to pilot canine screening.

The dogs can detect Covid-19 within an accuracy close to that of the PCR test in about one minute.

The Director-General of the Rwanda’s Biomedical Centre, Dr Sabin Nsanzimana said preliminary data is suggesting that the dogs are good at detecting the coronavirus with an efficacy rate of 94 percent.

The initiative is aimed at reducing the time and cost of testing Covid-19 at the airport, and ultimately at mass gatherings.

“From research, then it is going to be deployment not only at the airport because we are thinking about the stadiums, events, and any mass gathering where we need to be sure that there is no virus moving around. But that is in the near future,” Dr Nsanzimana said.

He said the number of sniffer dogs to carry out the exercise will be increased.

Five trained dogs are currently being used to detect Covid-19 from samples taken from passengers at the Kigali International Airport.
Passengers arriving at the airport will not be in contact with the sniffer dogs, but will be asked for consent to participate in the pilot and receive sample cotton patches.

The collected samples will then be taken to the sniffing cabin set up in a separate area.

The new initiative comes a few weeks after Rwanda’s national carrier, RwandAir became the first African airline to be awarded the top Diamond status rating for Covid-19 prevention measures – the highest attainable level.

The award came from APEX Health Safety, powered by SimpliFlying, for the airline’s sustained work to ensure the highest standards of cleanliness and sanitisation for its customers and crew.

The Diamond rating positions RwandAir as the safest airline in Africa and comes after RwandAir was recently announced as the first African airline to vaccinate all staff.

Rwanda has generally been commended for its effective Covid-19 preventative measures.