New Case Study Suggests Your Cat May Be Able To Transmit COVID-19 To Humans

Bad news alert: The first case of the COVID-19 virus being passed from a cat to a human was recently confirmed in Thailand and reported in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal.

The case in question happened when a male and female couple went to a hospital for COVID-19. Their cat went along to an animal hospital at that time, as well. While at the hospital and undergoing an examination, the cat sneezed into the face of a veterinarian.

After starting to feel sick, the vet tested positive for COVID-19 three days later. The cat was also confirmed as testing positive for COVID.

Will My Cat Give Me COVID?

Thankfully, the chances of your cat giving you this disease are pretty low. It’s more likely that you could pass the virus on to your cat, as happened in the case above.

So it’s important to remember that you should try to isolate and avoid close contact with your feline if you do unfortunately test positive for COVID.

At the very least, your cat should also quarantine and stay away from people who don’t have an infection.

Helping Out Local Shelters During The Pandemic

Mid Adult Woman With Protective Face Mask Looking at Her Cat. — (Picture Credit: CasarsaGuru/Getty Images)

Being that the COVID-19 pandemic is, in many ways, still upon us — and we’re also in very uncertain economic times — it might be a good moment to consider what sort of things you can do to help out any local shelters that have been weathering these last couple of tumultuous years.

Here are a few starter ideas:

Round up and donate any unwanted cat supplies and food or snacks that your finicky feline might have turned their nose up at.
Offer to volunteer! As well as being hands on, this can also involve offering to help out with any social media skills you have to promote the shelter and the cats.
If you have a birthday or other festive occasion coming up where you’d normally receive gifts, you can suggest that people donate to the shelter in your name instead.

Have you included your cat in your quarantine if you’ve had COVID-19? Have you been taking extra steps to help out local shelters since the pandemic started? Share your experience in the comments below!