Chinese dog owners rush to buy coronavirus masks for their pooches
Chinese dog owners are scrambling to buy face masks for their pooches to protect them from the coronavirus, even though health experts are not convinced other species can catch the disease.
One Beijing-based retailer said sales have skyrocketed for the canine face masks — with 10 times as many flying off the shelves since the virus was detected last month in Wuhan, the Daily Mail reported.
“Most [dogs] have started to wear [masks]. Because there is this virus, people pay more attention to their health and their pets’ health,” e-commerce vendor Zhou Tianxiao told the outlet.
Zhou — who started selling the masks to protect dogs against air pollution — said the devices can help prevent dogs from licking infected people or surfaces, according to the report.
The dog masks “might not be as professional as the medical masks made for humans but they are functional,” he claimed.
The World Health Organization has said it’s unclear whether the virus “has any impact on the health of animals.”
“No particular event has been reported in any species,” the agency said.
But China’s National Health Commission warned that pet owners should be cautious around infected patients, China Daily reported.
“If pets go out and have contact with an infected person, they have the chance to get infected,” said Li Lanjuan, an epidemiologist on the NHC’s committee for the virus, according to the report.
Meanwhile, the human death toll in China climbed Thursday to 170 with more than 7,700 cases, officials said.
