MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. Cats, dogs and other pets cannot spread the novel coronavirus, Viktor Maleyev, an advisor to the scientific director of the Russian consumer watchdog’s Research Institute of Epidemiology, told TASS.
On February 27, Hong Kong’s authorities said that a pet had allegedly transmitted the virus to a human. Preliminary tests identified the infection in the dog of a man who had tested positive for the coronavirus.
"There are currently seven described types of coronaviruses that cause acute respiratory diseases in humans. They include the novel coronavirus. According to contemporary data, cats, dogs, hamsters and other pets cannot spread this kind of coronavirus infection," Maleyev pointed out. He added, citing the World Health Organization, that no coronavirus cases among animals had been reported yet.
However, there are other types of coronaviruses that cause diseases in animals and pose no danger to humans.
Coronavirus outbreak
In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. Coronavirus cases have also been reported in more than 70 countries, including Russia.
According to the WHO, over 90,800 people have been infected with the virus across the world. The death toll has passed 2,900 in China, and over 160 people have died in other countries.
The WHO declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus a global health emergency and named the virus COVID-19.