Coronavirus: Pet Cat in Belgium gets infected in new human-to-animal transmission case

As the world fights the new Coronavirus that causes the sickness called COVID-19, has found a new case of human-to-animal transmission. On March 27, news media reports confirmed a cat contracting Coronavirus from her infected-owner.

A week after pet-owner from Belgium was infected with COVID-19, the family cat began showing similar symptoms of the virus-- respiratory issues and diarrhea.  This comes even as experts stated that Coronavirus spreads from human-to-human and there was no research on human-to-animal transmission. 

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Dogs test positive 

In a similar case, two dogs in Hong Kong had tested positive for the novel virus after a screening campaign was conducted on 17 dogs and eight cats living in contact with Coronavirus-infected patients. However, the two dogs showed no symptoms of Coronavirus. In early March, the first dog who was detected of Coronavirus was put under quarantine after being found as "weakly positive." 

An authority in the Belgium government called this an "isolated case" which may occur after a close-contact between infected humans with animals. However, ruled out that animals could be vectors of the pandemic. On March 13, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issuing an advisory had stated that there is no evidence to support that pet animals can spread Coronavirus or be infected. However, it added, "It is always a good idea to wash your hands with soap and water after contact with pets." 

Meanwhile, in Belgium 1,049 new cases were reported on Friday and 289 deaths. According to the latest statistics until Saturday morning, there are 594,344 confirmed global cases of Coronavirus, out of which 132,622 people have recovered and 27,251 have died. 

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