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New Delhi: India has proudly announced its COVID-19 vaccine to protect animals from infection. Developed by Haryana’s ICAR-National Research Centre on Equines, ‘Anocovax’ offers protection against both Delta and Omicron variants of the infection.
It may be recalled that many people had abandoned their pets during the first and second waves of the pandemic, fearing that COVID can spread from animals to humans. However, several studies have shown that COVID-19 can spread from people to animals during close contact. Pets worldwide, including cats and dogs, have been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19, mostly after close contact with people with coronavirus, a News18 report said.
Pets infected with this virus may or may not get sick. Of the pets that have gotten sick, most only had mild illness and fully recovered. Serious illness in pets is extremely rare, the report added.
Fact file of Anocovax:
Scientists have found SARS-CoV-2 in 29 kinds of animals, including white-tailed deer, cats, dogs, ferrets, mice, otters and tigers. In most cases, the animals have not been shown to spread the virus to people. In November 2020, scientists found that minks have spread the virus to people.
Cases of COVID-19 positive animals in India