Miami Heat To Use Specially Trained Dogs To Screen Fans For Coronavirus Attending Games In Person
The Miami Heat is implementing a unique strategy to mitigate the risk of coronavirus spread, and the main part of it walks on four legs.
Beginning Jan. 28, a limited number of spectators will be given admission to games at Miami’s American Airlines Arena. But everyone walking through the gate will be screened by a dog trained to screen for COVID-19 infection.
According to the Miami Heat website, guests will be asked to participate in a mandatory health screening questionnaire, then be screened by the canine. If it detects infection and signals by sitting down, the individual will be escorted from the arena. All guests are required to undergo the screening whether they have received the coronavirus vaccine or not. Those who will not submit to being screened by the dogs, can have alternative screening methods applied, but will not be admitted before passing the screening.
The team has already implemented mandatory mask and social distancing protocols that must be followed by anyone entering the arena.
The NBA has already reportedly set up protocols for games where teams are allowing fans to attend in person. In Nov., The Athletic’s Shams Charnia tweeted that the league will require fans sitting within 30 feet of the court to register a negative result two days before coming to a game.
Dogs have long been used for drug and bomb detection by law enforcement, but only late last year were they proven to be useful in detection of coronavirus infection. They do this by sniffing it in human saliva or respiratory secretion, according to a 2020 study in the peer reviewed medical journal BMC Infectious Diseases.
Coronavirus detection dogs have already been put to use at airports in Helsinki, Finland and Santiago, Chile.
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