This is part 16 of our coronavirus FAQ. Click here to read the other installments: #Coronavirus the facts. Find the latest information and answers from experts on everything COVID-19.
Q: Can the new coronavirus be transmitted between domestic cats?
Yes, says Kawaoka Yoshihiro, a leading virologist and a professor at both the University of Tokyo and the University of Wisconsin.
He and other researchers infected three cats with the coronavirus and housed each with one uninfected cat. They say the uninfected cats all tested positive three to six days later.
Q: Do infected cats display symptoms?
The researchers say infected cats may not show any symptoms and can spread the virus without the owner knowing, so they recommend that owners keep their pets indoors. But they stress that there is no evidence to suggest that the coronavirus can be transmitted from cats to humans.
Information here is accurate as of May 21, 2020.
Q: At up to what temperature can the new coronavirus survive?
Researchers say the coronavirus can survive at 37 degrees Celsius for one day, but will die within 30 minutes at 56 degrees Celsius. They found that it becomes undetectable within five minutes at 70 degrees.
Cooking food is believed to kill the virus, if done at a high enough temperature. That’s according to Sugawara Erisa of the Japanese Society for Infection Prevention and Control, though she also notes there have been no cases linked to contaminated food, regardless of whether it was heated.
Information here is accurate as of June 1, 2020.