China kills 3 domestic cats that test positive for COVID-19

BEIJING – A city in northern China has killed three domestic cats after testing positive for COVID-19, according to a local media report.

Authorities in Harbin said the action was taken because there was no treatment available for the animals with the disease and they allegedly endangered their owner and other residents of the apartment complex. they lived in, Beijing News said online.

The owner tested positive for the virus on September 21 and isolated himself after leaving food and water for the three cats.

A community worker passed by and gave the cats tests for coronavirus, which came back positive on two occasions. Despite an online call from the owner, identified only as Miss Liu, the cats were put to sleep on Tuesday evening.

Pet ownership is increasingly popular in China, and the newspaper’s report on the case drew more than 52,000 comments.

According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the risk of animals spreading SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to humans is “considered low”, although it is known to be transmissible from man to man. animals in certain situations, especially in close contact.

COVID-19 has been reported in mink farms in several countries, including cases in which it has been suggested that humans may have been infected from the animals, causing mass slaughter of the animals.

“People suspected or confirmed of COVID-19 should avoid contact with animals, including pets, livestock and wildlife,” the CDC said on its website.

“At the moment, there is no evidence that animals play a significant role” in the spread of the virus to humans, he said.

“Some coronaviruses that infect animals can spread to humans and then spread between humans, but this is rare. This is what happened with SARS-CoV-2, which likely originated in bats, ”the CDC said.

The theory that the virus was transmitted from bats to humans, possibly via an intermediate species such as a pangolin or bamboo rat, has been strongly favored by scientists studying the origins of COVID-19, which was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in China. end of 2019.

The slaughter of cats is one example of the sometimes extreme measures China has taken to control the virus, even when infection rates remain much lower than in other countries.

Blockages, wearing masks, mass testing and high vaccination rates have been known to suppress new infections.

Mainland China reported just 11 new locally transmitted cases on Wednesday, including eight in Harbin and three in the eastern city of Xiamen, both of which have seen recent outbreaks.

China currently has 949 patients being treated for COVID-19. It has reported 4,636 deaths from the disease out of a total of 96,106 reported cases.