World: 1 million
Germany: 85K+
France: 60K+
Australia 5K+
World fatalities: 50K+
One of the good news stories to come from this pandemic is that huge numbers of people are adopting and fostering animals from the RSPCA and other animal shelters. With so many people now working from home and in isolation and needing companionship, what better time to adopt a furry friend. Hopefully, when this pandemic is over, people will be able to continue working from home and keep their pets with them for life. It would be just so heartbreaking to see animals being dumped, or returned.
Not such good news for ferrets. The CSIRO in Geelong is about to start testing two coronavirus vaccines on ferrets. Apparently they have similar biology to humans. The ferrets will be injected with the vaccine and then exposed to the virus. I hope for the sake of the ferrets, and for humans the tests are effective.
In other good news the government announced yesterday that they are funding childcare facilities for the next six months. We can only hope that these facilities don’t become breeding grounds for COVID-19. The same concern hangs over schools which are set to reopen after Easter. Many schools have set up on-line learning, but there are children of health care workers and others working in essential services to manage on a daily basis.