During a presentation outside the festival's testing center on July 8, Cannes Mayor David Lisnard explained how vital the canines would be in sniffing out cases.
- July 10, 2021
AceShowbiz - Cannes Film Festival bosses have recruited dogs to sniff out COVID cases on the Croisette.
Organizers have recorded an average of three positive tests per day of the festival so far and the COVID canines are tracking down those who may not know they are carrying the coronavirus.
The dogs are part of the latest preventative measure being trialed by the French government, according to Deadline.
Cannes Mayor David Lisnard staged a presentation outside the festival's testing center on Thursday, July 8, during which he explained how vital the dogs would be.
Deadline translated Lisnard's reported statement about the dogs. "This screening method, whose scientific reliability has been successfully confirmed nationally and internationally, is a real revolution thanks to the time savings it generates," he allegedly said in French.
Two of the pooches, Mystik and Strike, have been trained by firefighters in Marseille, France, and are part of a trial that could be used at events nationwide.
Cannes Film Festival's general secretary Francois Desrousseaux additionally addressed rumors about skyrocketing cases. "Since the start of the festival on Tuesday, there were a maximum of six cases found on a single day," he told Variety. "If we look at the proportion of cases compared with the number of people tested, we're well below the national average."
"Understandably, people were particularly enthusiastic to reunite after such a long time during the first 24 hours, but we are making sure that sanitary rules are now strictly observed by everyone; and have more staff on the ground in charge of enforcing the protocol," Desrousseaux further stated. "We have to be fully conscious that we're still in the middle of a pandemic."
