In an unexpected development in India, a horse has been kept under quarantine for 14 days after the man who rode the horse has shown symptoms for COVID-19. The first of its kind incident has happened in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district where the horse has been quarantined by the officials after suspecting that it could possibly carry the virus as the rider rode back to the district from the areas that have been marked as red zones. 

After confining the horse under quarantine, the authorities have advised its caretakers to stay vigil and safe while they take care of the mammal and they have instructed to better stay off from the quarantined horse and refrain from riding it for the next 14 days and the officials have put the horse under isolation with accord to the inputs from the state health department. 

According to the reports, a man was riding on the horse while returning to Rajouri from Kashmir on Tuesday evening and while he was put through the screening, he had carried symptoms and taken under the institutional quarantine. His samples have been collected and the result is yet to come and after taking him under the quarantine, the officials called the experts in the department of animal husbandry on treating the horse which also came with the man from the red zone. 

The experts told the officials that the horse could be the COVID-19 career following which it has been taken under quarantine and its caretakers are advised to stay under precautions and not to use the horse in its mandated period of quarantine. The horse has been under the care of its caretakers and the experts would also be visiting the horse to examine its condition during the tenure of quarantine. 

The reports stated that the authorities in Rajouri had become more concerned as the man and his horse has come to the district through Mughal road in Hirpora village. This village that sits on the Kashmir Valley has recently become a hotspot for the virus spread as it has reported over 40 positive cases in its territory. The authorities in Rajouri have been taking all preventive measures against all who come from Hirpora village and as part of that, the horse has been kept under quarantine. 

The Jammu and Kashmir state administration has named the entire Kashmir valley and three districts as red zones and the Kashmir valley has reported more than 1,500 COVID-19 cases. Taking horse under quarantine has let everyone to get perplexed on whether the pet animals can become a COVID-19 carrier. The world remains in contradiction with this particular claim. 

The World Health Organization has ratified that there is no clear evidence that pet animals can transmit the virus to human beings. However, contrary to this ratification, many countries have reported that dogs and cats have tested positive for the virus and these developments have raised more fears and concerns over the possibility of whether the COVID-19 pandemic has been getting transmitted from humans to animals and the other way around.