I’ve written a couple times about the dog in Hong Kong that was identified as positive for SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) on February 26th. The initial thought (hope?) was that it was not really an infection but a positive result from contamination from the infected owner. The additional positive test result two days later (February 28th) suggested it may have been a true infection. Re-testing of the dog again on March 2nd yielded a third weak-positive result.  That makes it pretty likely that the dog is actually infected, albeit at a low level, and that this was a case of human-to-animal transmission.  This conclusion is apparently now supported by experts at the the University of Hong Kong and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

The dog has remained healthy, which is good. Whether that means this virus can’t cause disease in dogs or it just didn’t in this one isn’t known. People can be infected without getting sick, so it’s too early to say one way or the other what this result means in the broader canine picture.  The dog remains quarantined at the Hong Kong Port of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, with a plan to keep it there until it tests negative.

One other dog is under quarantine there, and it was negative on its first test.