South Korea Began Testing Cats And Dogs For COVID-19

According to Korean authorities, there will be no exceptions for cats and dogs when implementing COVID-19 testing and quarantine rules.

After a kitten in Jinju, a city in the southeast of the country, tested positive for COVID-19, the government has decided to test pets for the coronavirus. The cat was the country’s first pet to have the virus.

On January 30, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of South Korea announced that pets having contact with someone having the virus or symptoms of COVID-19 must be quarantined and tested.

In a press release, the health authorities state that if a pet is confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus, it must be self-isolated. If the pet’s owner can’t put them in isolation, the pet can be sent to local government facilities.

Also, there has been no case of viruses transmitted from pets to humans yet. However, experts said that such a possibility shouldn’t be ruled out.

Professor Lyoo Young-soo from Konkuk University suggested that the best way to prevent animals from getting the virus would be social distancing with humans as well as other animals as much as possible.

Meanwhile, professor Yoo Han-sang from Seoul National University said that since we would never know what pets could bring from the outside, owners should take care of the pets’ hygiene.

Previously, animals including dogs, cats, and even tigers and lions had tested positive for COVID-19 in the United States and Hong Kong. One study points out that, out of 50 cats from households with COVID-19 positive owners, six were found to carry the virus. The infected cats didn’t show any symptoms.

A group of scientists says that to curb the spread of COVID-19, we may need to vaccinate dogs and cats.

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