A loving dog owner who believes her pet is the first to catch coronavirus in the UK thinks he got ill after chewing her discarded tissues.
Mandy Hayes, 60, was ill with Covid-19 symptoms when she caught Alaskan malamute Mushka chewing on a used tissue left on her bedside table.
Despite being assured the disease could not pass to pets, ten-year-old Mushka developed the exact same symptoms as his owner - a continuous, dry 'covid' cough and extreme breathlessness.
Terrified Mandy, from Gravesend, Kent, got a friend to take the dog to the vets. But the symptoms were dismissed as kennel cough, then lung worm, she said.