Authors, Year	Title	Extractions
Abdel‐Moneim & Abdelwhab, 2020	Evidence for SARS‐CoV‐2 Infection of Animal Hosts	SARS‐CoV‐2 originated from animal reservoir, most likely bats and/or pangolins. Anthroponotic transmission has been reported in cats, dogs, tigers, lions and minks. As of now, there is no a strong evidence for natural animal‐to-human transmission or sustained animal‐to-animal transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2. Experimental infections conducted by several research groups have shown that monkeys, hamsters, ferrets, cats, tree shrews, transgenic mice and fruit bats were permissive, while dogs, pigs and poultry were resistant. There is an urgent need to understand the zoonotic potential of different viruses in animals, particularly in bats, before they transmit to humans. Vaccines or antivirals against SARS‐CoV‐2 should be evaluated not only for humans, but also for the protection of companion animals (particularly cats) and susceptible zoo and farm animals.
Aboubakr et al., 2020	Stability of SARS‐CoV‐2 and other coronaviruses in the environment and on common touch surfaces and the influence of climatic conditions: A review	SARS‐CoV‐2 and other human and animal CoVs have remarkably short persistence on copper, latex and surfaces with low porosity as compared with other surfaces like stainless steel, plastics, glass and highly porous fabrics. It has also been reported that SARS‐CoV‐2 is associated with diarrhoea and that it is shed in the faeces of COVID‐19 patients. Some CoVs show persistence in human excrement, sewage and waters for a few days. These findings suggest a possible risk of faecal–oral, foodborne and waterborne transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 in developing countries that often use sewage polluted waters in irrigation and have poor water treatment systems. CoVs survive longer in the environment at lower temperatures and lower relative humidity.
Alexander et al., 2020	Predicting susceptibility to SARS‐CoV‐2 infection based on structural differences in ACE2 across species	Certain species, such as domestic cats and tigers, are susceptible to SARSCoV‐2 infection, while other species such as mice and chickens are not. Most animal species, including those in close contact with humans, have unknown susceptibility. Given experimental evidence for the susceptibility of humans, house cats, tigers, lions, rhesus macaques, and Golden Syrian hamsters to SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, and experimental evidence for non‐susceptibility of mice, ducks, and chickens,3‐5,7,9‐11,39,40 we performed protein sequence alignment of ACE2 from these organisms using MAFFT (Figure S4).20 We also included species with intermediate susceptibility, including dogs, pigs, and ferrets,7,9,13,14 as well as species with unknown susceptibility, including camels, horses, Malayan pangolin, and sheep. The degree of similarity of ACE2 protein sequences largely fell along expected phylogenetic relationships among species (Figure S5). Susceptibility to SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, however, did not match either phylogenetic relationships or ACE2 sequence similarities across species. For example, mouse (Mus musculus) is not susceptible to infection. However, mouse ACE2 sequence is more similar to a susceptible species, Golden Syrian hamster (Mesocricetus auratus), than non‐susceptible species such as duck (Aythya fuligula) or chicken (Gallus gallus).9,11 In addition, mice are phylogenetically more similar to susceptible species such as humans (Homo sapiens) and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) than non‐susceptible species such as ducks and chicken.9,11 These findings suggest that neither phylogenetic relationships nor overall ACE2 protein sequence similarity across species is able to predict susceptibility to SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. An alternative approach is to use the experimentally validated differences in infection susceptibility across species to focus on ACE2 amino acids that most differ between susceptible and non‐susceptible species. We thus calculated a weighted score of how well the aligned amino acids stratify susceptible vs non‐susceptible species, incorporating amino acid similarity. This score, termed GroupSim, permits quantitative determination of which amino acids in the alignment best stratify susceptible from non‐susceptible species.26 We applied our infection susceptibility score to several important species with unknown susceptibility to date. These data suggest that cows (Bos taurus), Malayan pangolin (Manis javanica), and goats (Capra hircus) have intermediate susceptibility to infection, while Chinese horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus sinicus), horses (Equus caballus), and camels (Camelus dromedarius and Camelus bactrianus) have higher susceptibility. 3. APHISpress@usda.gov. (April 6, 2020). USDA Statement on the Confirmation of COVID‐19 in a Tiger in New York. United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/newsroom/news/sa_by_date/sa-2020/ny-zoo-covid-19 4. APHISpress@usda.gov. (August 13, 2020). Confirmed cases of SARS‐CoV‐2 in animals in the United States. United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/SA_One_Health/sars-cov-2-animals-us 5. Chan JF, Zhang AJ, Yuan S, et al. Simulation of the clinical and pathological manifestations of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) in golden Syrian hamster model: implications for disease pathogenesis and transmissibility. Clin Infect Dis. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa325 6. Chandrashekar A, Liu J, Martinot AJ, et al. SARS‐CoV‐2 infection protects against rechallenge in rhesus macaques. Science. 2020;eabc4776. 7. Shi J, Wen Z, Zhong G, et al. Susceptibility of ferrets, cats, dogs, and other domesticated animals to SARS‐coronavirus 2. Science. 2020;368:1016–1020. 8. Halfmann PJ, Hatta M, Chiba S, et al. Transmission of SARSCoV‐2 in domestic cats. N Engl J Med. 2020;383:592–594. 13. Kim YI, Kim SG, Kim SM, et al. Infection and rapid transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 in ferrets. Cell Host Microbe. 2020;27:704‐709.e702. 14. Sit THC, Brackman CJ, Ip SM, et al. Infection of dogs with SARSCoV‐2. Nature. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2334-5
Almendros A., 2020	Can companion animals become infected with Covid‐19?	The consensus remains at this time (April 2020) that there is no evidence that infected pets are a source of infection for people or other pets
Bosco‐Lauth et al., 2020	Experimental infection of domestic dogs and cats with SARS‐CoV‐2: Pathogenesis, transmission, and response to reexposure in cats	Due to concern for human–pet transmission, we investigated the susceptibility of domestic cats and dogs to infection and potential for infected cats to transmit to naive cats. We report that cats are highly susceptible to infection, with a prolonged period of oral and nasal viral shedding that is not accompanied by clinical signs, and are capable of direct contact transmission to other cats. These studies confirm that cats are susceptible to productive SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, but are unlikely to develop clinical disease. Further, we document that cats developed a robust neutralizing antibody response that prevented reinfection following a second viral challenge. Conversely, we found that dogs do not shed virus following infection but do seroconvert and mount an antiviral neutralizing antibody response. There is currently no evidence that cats or dogs play a significant role in human infection; however, reverse zoonosis is possible if infected owners expose their domestic pets to the virus during acute infection.
Cao et al., 2020	Analysis of ACE2 Gene‐Encoded Proteins Across Mammalian Species	The major finding of our predictive analysis suggested ACE2 gene‐encoded proteins to be highly homologous across mammals. Based on their high homology, their possibility of binding the spike‐protein of SARS‐CoV‐2 is quite high and species such as Felis catus, Bos taurus, Rattus norvegicus etc. may be potential susceptible hosts; special monitoring is particularly required for livestock that are in close contact with humans.
Ceylan et al., 2020	Relevance of SARS‐CoV‐2 in food safety and food hygiene: potential preventive measures, suggestions and nanotechnological approaches	Food products play a key role in virus transmission. There is currently no scientific evidence to indicate a concern with food products related to SARS‐CoV‐2, according to the FDA. However, consumption of meat or organs of infected animals can result in zoonotic foodborne infections. 12. European Commission. Directorate‐General for Health and Food Safety. COVID‐19 and Food Safety. 2020. https://ec.europa.eu/food/sites/food/files/safety/docs/biosafety_crisis_covid19_qandas_en.pdf. Accessed 23 May 2020. 13. Food and Drug Administration. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) frequently asked questions. 2020. https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/mcm-issues/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-frequently-asked-questions. Accessed 13 March 2020.
Chiocchetti et al., 2020	ACE2 Expression in the Cat and the Tiger Gastrointestinal Tracts	SARS‐CoV‐2 has been isolated in human and animal faecal samples. The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression of ACE2 in the gastrointestinal tract of domestic (cat) and wild (tiger) felines. Samples of the pylorus, duodenum, and distal colon were collected from six cats and one tiger. Risk of the SARS‐CoV‐2 faecal‐oral transmission between cats/felids, and between cats/felids and humans. The localization of ACE2‐IR in the gastrointestinal mucosa of the cats and the tiger anatomically suggested that SARS‐CoV‐2 can bind to its unique receptor on host cells; however, this finding alone did not necessarily mean that SARS‐CoV‐2 could replicate in the feline GIT. Once again, the positivity of the cat and the tiger faecal samples to SARS‐CoV‐2 (13, 14) confirmed that the feline GIT could be an important replication site of the virus, which could consequently spread the infection by means of the stool. Halfmann PJ, Hatta M, Chiba S, Maemura T, Fan S, Takeda M, et al. Transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 in domestic cats. NEngl JMed. (2020) 383:592– 4. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmc2013400
Csiszar et al., 2020	Companion animals likely do not spread COVID‐19 but may get infected themselves	The SARS‐CoV‐2 virus was originally transmitted likely from a bat or a pangolin to humans. Recent evidence suggests that SARS‐CoV‐2, similar to other coronaviruses, can infect several species of animals, including companion animals such as dogs, cats, and ferrets although their viral loads remain low. While the main source of infection transmission therefore is human to human, there are a few rare cases of pets contracting the infection from a SARS‐CoV‐2‐infected human. There is no evidence that pets actively transmit SARS‐CoV‐2 via animal‐to‐human transmission
Ding S. and Liang T. J., 2020	Is SARS‐CoV‐2 Also an Enteric Pathogen With Potential Faecal– Oral Transmission? A COVID‐19 Virological and Clinical Review	The virus may also be an enteric virus that can spread via the faecal–oral route
Duda‐Chodak et al., 2020	Covid‐19 pandemic and food: Present knowledge, risks, consumers fears and safety	There is currently no evidence (scientific publications, WHO, EFSA etc.) that COVID‐19 disease can spread directly through food and the human digestive system. Food can, if not directly, be a carrier of the virus.
Enserink M., 2020	Coronavirus rips through Dutch mink farms, triggering culls	Authorities in the Netherlands began to gas tens of thousands of minks on 6 June, most of them being pups born only weeks ago. SARS‐CoV‐2 has attacked farms that raise the animals for fur, and the Dutch government worries infected mink could become a viral reservoir that could cause new outbreaks in humans. The mink outbreaks are “spillover” from the human pandemic—a zoonosis in reverse that has offered scientists in the Netherlands a unique chance to study how the virus jumps between species. At least two farm workers have caught the virus from mink—the only patients anywhere known to have become infected by animals. SARS‐CoV‐2 can infect other animals, including cats, dogs, tigers, hamsters, ferrets, and macaques, but there are no known cases of transmission from these species back into the human population.
Gan et al., 2020	Research Progress on Coronavirus Prevention and Control in Animal‐Source Foods	Livestock, poultry and other warm‐blooded animals may act as intermediate hosts for CoVs. Consumption of pangolins, illegal but frequent, is present throughout the world that might be an infection pathway of COVID‐19. In addition, excessive emphasis on food freshness has resulted in the prevalence of cold foods, raw foods and other consumption methods. However, most bacteria and viruses (e.g Ebola virus, SARS‐CoV) have strong infectivity under room temperature and refrigeration conditions, causing possible food poisoning or foodborne infections in humans and providing conditions for viral and bacterial outbreaks in human societies. Due to the risk of virus transmission in raw material procurement, slaughter, division, processing, storage, and transportation in processing companies and the foodborne transmission nature of CoVs, residual viruses may be present in raw materials, intermediate products, and finished products.
Gaudreault et al., 2020	SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, disease and transmission in domestic cats	Recent SARS‐CoV‐2 susceptibility and transmission studies in cats show that the virus can replicate in these companion animals and transmit to other cats. Here, we present an in‐depth study of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, disease and transmission dynamics in domestic cats. All animals were clinically asymptomatic during the course of the study and capable of transmitting SARS‐CoV‐2 to sentinels within 2 days of comingling
Goli M., 2020	Review of novel human β‐coronavirus (2019‐nCoV or SARSCoV‐2) from the food industry perspective—Appropriate approaches to food production technology	The purpose of this study was to review these coronaviruses from the perspective of appropriate approaches to food production technology, including following good food safety practices in food production lines; avoidance of underheating in the processing of swine and the other meat products; uncertainty about the safety of frozen or refrigerated meat products; providing unfavourable environmental conditions for coronavirus survival (minimum heat treatment, e.g., low‐temperature long time and greater for liquid food products, pH ≤ 3, minimum storage relative humidity)
Han et al., 2020	Can the coronavirus disease be transmitted from food? A review of evidence, risks, policies and knowledge gaps	No retrospective study has been reported on foodborne transmission of COVID‐19. While studies have shown that low temperature could dramatically prolong the persistence on SARS‐CoV‐2 and other coronaviruses, frozen and refrigerated foods have been widely overlooked as potential vectors in policy frameworks and risk mitigation strategies. Food transmission evidence has been disclosed in China early July 2020 by the detection of SARS‐CoV‐2 on frozen foods, including their packaging materials and storage environments, with two re‐emergent outbreaks linked to contaminated food sources. The contamination risk is augmented by a complex farm‐to‐table process, which favors exposure to food workers and ambient environments. We therefore hypothesize that contaminated cold‐storage foods may present a systematic risk for SARS‐CoV‐2 transmission between countries and regions. Here, we review the evidence, risk factors, current policy and knowledge gaps, on food contamination and foodborne transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2. Although the likelihood of food‐to-human transmission is considered lower when compared with other routes such as respiratory droplets and fomites, these should not be neglected as a risk factor given the large volumes of refrigerated foods being transported across different countries and regions, the personnel and complex environments they could be exposed to through the “farm‐to‐table” lifecycle, and their eventual human contact with a large consumer base. The presence of SARS‐CoV‐2 was detected on frozen foods, including packaging materials and storage environments, with 9 incidents reported by health authorities across the country between early July and mid‐August 2020. Further, latest laboratory studies found new evidence that SARS‐CoV‐2 remained highly stable on meat, fish, and animal skin for the entire duration of studies (14–21 days) at both refrigerated (4 °C) and freezing temperatures (− 20 and − 80 °C).
Hayashi et al., 2020;	Highly conserved binding region of ACE2 as a receptor for SARS‐CoV‐2 between humans and mammals	Several cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection transmitted from humans to animals
Hernández et al., 2020	Are Animals a Neglected Transmission Route of SARS‐CoV‐2?	There is evidence that SARS‐CoV‐2 can infect felines, dogs and minks, and there is evidence of human‐to‐animal infection. Likewise, the S protein nucleotide sequence of the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus isolated in domestic animals and humans is identical, and the replication of the SARS‐CoV‐2 in cats is efficient.
Huang et al., 2020	SARS‑CoV‑2 failure to infect or replicate in mosquitoes: an extreme challenge	The WHO has stated “To date there has been no information nor evidence to suggest that the new coronavirus could be transmitted by mosquitoes”. Here we provide the first experimental data to investigate the capacity of SARS‑CoV‑2 to infect and be transmitted by mosquitoes. Three widely distributed species of mosquito; Aedes aegypti, Ae. albopictus and Culex quinquefasciatus were tested. We demonstrate that even under extreme conditions, SARS‑CoV‑2 virus is unable to replicate in these mosquitoes and therefore cannot be transmitted to people even in the unlikely event that a mosquito fed upon a viremic host.
Kim et al., 2020;	Infection and Rapid Transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 in Ferrets	Ferrets are highly susceptible to SARSCoV‐2 infection and effectively transmit the virus by direct or indirect contact, recapitulating human infection and transmission.
Kiros et al., 2020	COVID‐19 pandemic: current knowledge about the role of pets and other animals in disease transmission	SARS‐CoV‐2 can affect not only humans but also pets and other domestic and wild animals, making it a one health global problem. Several published scientific evidence has shown that bats are the initial reservoir hosts of SARS‐CoV‐2, and pangolins are suggested as an intermediate hosts. So far, little is known concerning the role of pets and other animals in the transmission of COVID19. Review of available data
Kumar et al., 2020	Predicting susceptibility for SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in domestic and wildlife animals using ACE2 protein sequence homology	The article is presenting a bioinformatics based method predicting susceptibility for SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in domestic and wildlife animals.
McNamara et al., 2020	A Critical Needs Assessment for Research in Companion Animals and Livestock Following the Pandemic of COVID‐19 in Humans	The susceptibility of livestock and poultry that could act as virus reservoirs, might serve as animal models for COVID‐19 or are possibly in close contact with infected humans, is still understudied. Recent work at the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute (Shi et al. 2020b) in China and the Friedrich‐LoefflerInstitut (Swine Health Information Center 2020, FriedrichLoeffler‐Institut 2020) in Germany examined SARS‐CoV‐2 susceptibility of pigs, chickens, and ducks (only studied by Shi et al. 2020b). They reported that pigs, chickens, and ducks could not be productively infected by SARS‐CoV‐2 under the experimental conditions used in their work. This raises many questions: What is the susceptibility of livestock and poultry to SARS‐CoV‐2? Do we know the potential transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 from humans to livestock/poultry and among different livestock/poultry species? Do we have methods for detection and surveillance of SARS‐CoV‐2 in livestock/poultry?
Meekins et al., 2020	Susceptibility of swine cells and domestic pigs to SARS‐CoV‐2	We determined the ability of SARS‐CoV‐2 to (i) replicate in porcine cell lines, (ii) establish infection in domestic pigs via experimental oral/intranasal/intratracheal inoculation, and (iii) transmit to co‐housed naive sentinel pigs. SARS‐CoV‐2 was able to replicate in two different porcine cell lines with cytopathic effects. Interestingly, none of the SARS‐CoV‐2‐inoculated pigs showed evidence of clinical signs, viral replication or SARS‐CoV‐2‐specific antibody responses. Moreover, none of the sentinel pigs displayed markers of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. These data indicate that although different porcine cell lines are permissive to SARS‐CoV‐2, five‐week‐old pigs are not susceptible to infection via oral/intranasal/intratracheal challenge. Pigs are therefore unlikely to be significant carriers of SARS‐CoV‐2 and are not a suitable pre‐clinical animal model to study SARS‐CoV‐2 pathogenesis or efficacy of respective vaccines or therapeutics.
Munir et al., 2020	Zoonotic and reverse zoonotic events of SARS‐CoV‐2 and their impact on global health	Recent detection of SARS‐CoV‐2 in pet, zoo and certain farm animals has highlighted its potential for reverse zoonosis. This scenario is particularly alarming, since these animals could be potential reservoirs for secondary zoonotic infections. In this article, we highlight interspecies SARS‐CoV‐2 infections and focus on the reverse zoonotic potential of this virus. We also emphasize the importance of potential secondary zoonotic events and the One‐Health and One‐World approach to tackle such future pandemics.
Richard et al., 2020;	SARS‐CoV‐2 is transmitted via contact and via the air between ferrets
Salajegheh Tazerji et al., 2020	Transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) to animals: an updated review	Review of cases of human to animal transmissions
Schlottau et al., 2020;	SARS‐CoV‐2 in fruit bats, ferrets, pigs, and chickens: an experimental transmission study	We intranasally inoculated nine fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus), ferrets (Mustela putorius), pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus), and 17 chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) with 105 TCID50 of a SARS‐CoV‐2 isolate per animal. Direct contact animals (n=3) were included 24 h after inoculation to test viral transmission. Pigs and chickens were not susceptible to SARS‐CoV‐2. All swabs, organ samples, and contact animals were negative for viral RNA, and none of the pigs or chickens seroconverted. Seven (78%) of nine fruit bats had a transient infection
Shi et al., 2020;	Susceptibility of ferrets, cats, dogs, and other domesticated animals to SARS–coronavirus 2	We investigated the susceptibility of ferrets and animals in close contact with humans to SARS‐CoV‐2. We found that SARS‐CoV‐2 replicates poorly in dogs, pigs, chickens, and ducks, but ferrets and cats are permissive to infection. Additionally, cats are susceptible to airborne transmission. Our study provides insights into the animal models for SARS‐CoV‐2 and animal management for COVID‐19 control.
Sreenivasan et al., 2020	Susceptibility of livestock and companion animals to COVID‐19	Here, we explore the susceptibility of companion and agricultural animals, in light of the existing information on natural infections, experimental infections, serosurveillance, and in vitro protein‐homology binding interaction studies of the SARS‐CoV‐2 with the proposed receptor angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 from diverse animal species. Luan et al. performed homology modeling of SARS‐CoV‐2 spike protein with ACE2 of several mammalian species and predicted that SARS‐CoV‐2 could bind to ACE2 of oldworld monkeys, orangutans, baboons, mustelids, civets, several species of horseshoe bats, pigs, ferrets, dogs, cats, pangolin, Malayan fruit bats, horse, cow, rabbits, red fox, sheep, Chinese hamster and other hamster spp., marmoset, naked mole‐rat, and ground squirrel to SARS‐CoV‐2. Species that could not bind to the virus include camels, raccoon, Greater horseshoe bat, rat, mice, platypus, African bush elephant, European hedgehog, mongoose, kangaroo rat, and guinea pigs. There is no concrete evidence as yet to indicate that livestock or companion animals could transmit SARS‐CoV‐2 to humans. Minks are the only domesticated species, which were largely affected by the SARS‐CoV‐2 on a global scale.
Stout et al., 2020	Coronaviruses in cats and other companion animals: Where does SARS‐CoV2/COVID‐19 fit?	With a focus on felines, we review here the evidence for SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in cats, ferrets and dogs, describe the relationship between SARS‐CoV‐2 and the natural coronaviruses known to infect these species, and provide a rationale for the relative susceptibility of these species to SARS‐CoV‐2 through comparative analysis of the ACE2 receptor. Both cats and ferrets are known hosts of human (and avian) influenza viruses yet are not considered to be a significant risk for human infections. In contrast, dogs maintain their own pool of influenza viruses. Overall, both cats and ferrets may be part of a common pool of human respiratory infections.
Vergara‐Alert et al., 2020	Pigs are not susceptible to SARS‐CoV‐2 infection but are a model for viral immunogenicity studies	Conventional piglets were inoculated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) through different routes, including intranasal, intratracheal, intramuscular and intravenous ones. Although piglets were not susceptible to SARS‐CoV‐2 and lacked lesions or viral RNA in tissues/swabs, seroconversion was observed in pigs inoculated parenterally (intramuscularly or intravenously). Multiple experimental infections have already shown a broad range of susceptible animals. Specifically, Egyptian fruit bat, ferret, golden Syrian hamster, cat, mice expressing humanized angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), BALB/c mice (using a mutated SARS‐CoV‐2 by several cell culture passages) and some nonhuman primate species are permissive to viral infection, developing from subclinical to mild‐to moderate respiratory disease (Bao et al., 2020; Halfmann et al., 2020; Kim et al., 2020; Rockx et al., 2020; Shi et al., 2020; Yu et al., 2020). From an experimental point of view, dog susceptibility to SARS‐CoV‐2 is limited, since inoculated animals can partly seroconvert (Shi et al., 2020). In contrast, the intranasal inoculation of chicken, duck and pig resulted in no evidence of infection (Schlottau et al., 2020; Shi et al., 2020).
Westhaus et al., 2020	Detection of SARS‐CoV‐2 in raw and treated wastewater in Germany – Suitability for COVID‐19 surveillance and potential transmission risks