A woman has spoken out after her trip to virus-hit Wuhan was cancelled unexpectedly.
The owner from Taiwan had planned to fly to the city with her family later this month, but the trip was scuppered by her pet dog Kimi, who had eaten her passport.
Posting photos of the furry culprit to her Facebook page on 13 January, the woman explained that she had returned home to find the dog lay beside the shredded travel documents.
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This meant she was no longer able to purchase her tickets to travel to Wuhan later this month.
The woman's original post read: "Once I got back to the room and found this scene!"
However, shortly after the photos were taken, news came that there had been an outbreak of the deadly coronavirus in the region.
Realising what could have happened, Kimi's owner shared a second post, writing: "Do you guys remember the passport? Throwback: this kid is really protecting me. After my passport was torn apart, the virus began to go where I originally planned to go.
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"I think about it now, and it's very touching. Fortunately, you blocked our trip."
This comes just a day after the tragic news was announced that a doctor working at a hospital in Wuhan, China, had died after contracting coronavirus.
The China Global Television Network shared the news in a tweet and said the doctor who had died was 62-year-old Liang Wudong.
The overall death toll has risen now to 56 since the outbreak began.
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Health officials are struggling to contain the virus and there are now more than 1,900 confirmed cases worldwide, with the virus also spreading to France and Australia, as well as parts of Asia.
According to the Guardian, 14 people in the UK have been tested for coronavirus, but all the tests have come back negative.
The virus - which was previously unknown to science - has been noted for to its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed 774 people back in 2002-2003.
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Symptoms seem to begin with a fever, followed by a cough and shortness of breath; there is no vaccine or cure.
Wuhan has been on lockdown since Wednesday and a new 1,000 bed hospital is being hastily built in the city, with local news outlets reporting that it could be in use as early as 3 February.
It is suspected that animals, such as fruit bats or snakes, could be the primary source of the outbreak, with a seafood market selling live animals in Wuhan in Hubei province being identified as ground zero for the virus.
The World Health Organisation reported that The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan city was closed on 1 January 2020 for environmental sanitation and disinfection.
Featured Image Credit: https://www.facebook.com/kimi0611Topics: World News, Interesting, Coronavirus, China, Health