It appears possible for our pets to catch the coronavirus from us in very rare cases. But WHO stresses there's no evidence the virus can jump the other way, from pets to people - and no one should abandon their animals.
Since it emerged in China in late 2019, the new coronavirus has infected more than 1.5 million people and claimed 94,000 lives. To stop a pandemic that spreads from person to person in close quarters, the world has largely shut down, with borders closed, streets empty and whole cities going into quarantine.
One small study that did cause a stir online found that cats and ferrets could be infected and pass on the virus to one another but it’s important to note the context for the research – animals in the study were deliberately infected with very high doses of the virus to see if a possible vaccine could be tested on them. And researchers did not find they could then give the virus to humans.
A growing number of scientists, including infectious disease expert Professor Raina MacIntyre and aerosol scientist and WHO advisor Professor Lidia Morawska, now say the risk from aerosols may have been underestimated.
Other experts such as infectious disease physician Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake say the virus is unlikely to be spreading far or frequently in the air. If it were, the shape of the pandemic would be likely look different – moving faster and striking down more people without close contact to known cases.
Face masks can protect against the droplets that spread the virus and are now a common sight on the streets of many cities around the world such as Hong Kong. Both the WHO and the Australian government say masks are still only necessary for people with symptoms and those treating them, and must not be wasted by the general public as shortages of the product could put healthcare workers at risk.
Blood tests, which look for the body’s immune response to the infection, can also be used but are not yet widely available outside China, and bring their own false negative risks – antibodies deployed by the body to fight off the virus can take more than a week to form so may not show up if the test is performed too early into the illness. This is also true of the rapid finger-prick tests being checked in Australia right now by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, after problems overseas.
Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy says he supports more widespread testing but stresses there is still a "temporary" shortage of testing kits. Faster finger prick tests that tell if someone has antibodies against the virus in their blood are also being checked by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. But
, hundreds of whom later tested positive. But the states have also threatened hefty fines and even jail time for those at risk of spreading the virus who break home quarantine orders.Anyone following the international news on the pandemic will have noticed a marked variation in death rates from Covid-19 among different countries. In hard-hit Italy, for instance, the death rate among confirmed cases is around 12 per cent in the first week of April, compared with 1.
Here's the boiled-down version texted to thousands of Australians: "Only leave for what you need + exercise, work, medical and care." You can still visit someone's house to care for them, drop off supplies or in an emergency – say, if you are fleeing danger, but in Victoria Police Minister Lisa Neville said on March 31 "you cannot visit your partner for social reasons". On the morning of April 1, a Victorian health department spokeswoman added: "You shouldn't be physically intimate with people you're not living with, even if they are your partner.
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