Ljubljana animal shelter preparing to admit animals of Covid-19 patients
Ljubljana, 25 March - The Ljubljana animal shelter has limited the admission of animals to urgent cases and is making preparations to take in the animals of potential Covid-19 patients who have nobody to look after their pet during their illness.
Ljubljana
Ljubljana animal shelter.
Photo: Nebojša Tejić/STA
While the animals will be subjected to a 10-day quarantine, which is standard procedure at the shelter, a special protocol has been put in place for the handover.
Owners are urged not to bring the animals to the shelter but instead notify it via phone or get a healthy person with an authorisation notice to deliver it.
The head of the shelter, which has the capacity to admit about 50 animals, Marko Oman has told Delo that the staff is already used to working in protective gear, which is why protocols did not need to be changed much.
Omar is urging caution even if there has been no evidence so far that pets can also contract the novel coronavirus.
"It is recommended to avoid petting the animals, since we don't know as mush about the disease as we would like to," he said.