As China is gripped by the coronavirus outbreak, a concerned cat-owner has come up with a creative solution to protect their cat.
Hearts were warmed as pictures of the feline started doing the rounds on Chinese social media.
The cat has its whole face covered with a human-sized surgical mask, which its loving owner has poked holes through to let it see.
It is not clear exactly where in China the picture was taken, but Ten Cent News says other pet owners in the People’s Republic have come up with similar ideas.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said there is no evidence to suggest pets can be infected with the new strain of coronavirus, which has killed more than 1,000 people and infected around 43,000 others worldwide.
Despite reassurance that dogs are unlikely to catch the infection, sales of pet masks are rocketing in China.
One Beijing-based online retailer said he is selling 10 times the number of special masks for dogs every day than before.
Meanwhile some local authorities in China have ordered citizens to ‘deal with’ their beloved pets over fears they could contract the coronavirus.
Other theories have suggested the airborne Sars-like disease passed from humans to animals, with initial reports suggesting it originated from a live-market in Wuhan, in China’s Hubei province.
Researchers at South China Agricultural University said the virus could have spread through bats to humans through the illegal trafficking of pangolins.
But there is still a lot that scientists do not know about this new strain, which was only officially named as ‘Covid-19’ by the World Health Organisation today.
