It is not the first time that pets have tested positive for the virus: the same laboratory detected coronavirus in a cat last year, while research from the Netherlands has previously suggested that the virus is common in cats and dogs owned by people who have Covid.

Gale, a 22-month-old American Staffordshire terrier, was scheduled to fly to Amsterdam on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and had cleared security in her crate at Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta three hours before the flight, her owner, Floris van Essen, told Atlanta's NBC affiliate WXIA.Gale, a show dog from the Netherlands, has been missing since Saturday after breaking free from her crate at an Atlanta airport.