Cats can neither transmit nor can be a carrier of coronavirus, says BJP leader Maneka Gandhi

BJP leader Maneka Gandhi on Tuesday said that cats cannot spread or get infected by the coronavirus and that they are completely safe to be around.

New Delhi [India], April 7 : BJP leader Maneka Gandhi on Tuesday said that cats cannot spread or get infected by the coronavirus and that they are completely safe to be around.

"Cats cannot transmit or get coronavirus. If you have seen some nonsensical thing on TV that some tiger in one zoo has got the disease. Remember this, a cat is not a tiger, there is no relationship. Your cats are completely safe to be around," Maneka Gandhi said in a video released by her.

This comes after a tiger in a US zoo tested positive for the virus following which the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) asked all zoos across the country to monitor the health of kept mals as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of COVID-19.

On Monday, a tiger housed at the Bronx Zoo in New York tested positive for coronavirus, making it the first known infection in an mal anywhere, according to US Department of Agriculture's National Veterinary Services Laboratories.

( With inputs from ANI )