NBA Team Employs COVID-Sniffing Dogs to Screen Fans

Coronavirus has impacted nearly every single American in one way or another, and the highly contagious virus has taken particular aim at a number of industries here in the US where gathering is integral to business.

First and foremost, there is the enormous impact the the virus has had on the restaurant business, with many establishments unable to maintain their operations via the reduced capacity or to-go-only restrictions of their locales.

This is the same for music venues and bars as well, all of which are businesses where a vast number of the frontline employees live paycheck to paycheck.

And then there are the sports teams, some of whom are still playing, but with either no fans or highly reduced capacities themselves.

Now, in an effort to start bringing more fans back to the arena, the Miami Heat are asking man’s best friend for a little help.

The Miami Heat are turning to COVID-sniffing dogs to screen fans at the gates.

The Heat been working on the plan for months, and the highly trained dogs have been in place for some games this season where the team has allowed a handful of guests — mostly friends and family of players and staff.

Starting this week, a limited number of ticket holders will be in the seats as well, provided they get past the dogs first.

“If you think about it, detection dogs are not new,” said Matthew Jafarian, the Heat’s executive vice president for business strategy. “You’ve seen them in airports, they’ve been used in mission critical situations by the police and the military. We’ve used them at the arena for years to detect explosives.”

The practice isn’t exactly novel, but it’s still fairly new.

Other notable example of the virus-trained dogs can be found at airports in Helsinki and Dubai.