A veterinarian in southern Thailand likely contracted the coronavirus from an infected pet cat last year, researchers concluded in a new study. It is the first documented case of suspected cat-to-human transmission, although experts stress that the risk of cats infecting humans with the virus remains low overall.
One of the cat’s two owners, who both had Covid-19, probably passed the virus to the cat, which then sneezed in the veterinarian’s face, according to a research paper written by scientists at Prince of Songkla University. Genomic sequencing confirmed that the cat and all three people were infected with an identical version of the virus, which was not widespread in the local population at the time.
