What would you do if you see a bat roosting in the corner of your room?
Coo at them and ask for them to go out politely?
Well, if you do that, you’re probably one of the minority in Singapore.
3 X More People in S’pore Called Acres After Spotting a Bat in Their House
Covid-19 has done a lot of things:
When Covid-19 was first known to the world, scientists thought that the coronavirus originated from bats and was transmitted to humans through another mammal.
Which is probably why, in some people’s eyes, they became public enemy number one.
The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) told TNP that in “early February to March”, they had received 3 times more calls from people in Singapore to remove bats.
Most of them were due to “Covid-19 concerns”.
One of the calls was even about a resident who decided to throw a bat, which was still alive, down the rubbish chute.
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Thankfully, Things Got Better
Almost seven months after Covid-19 first appeared, a lot more research and studies have been done on Covid-19 (Sars-CoV2).
It was found that while the coronavirus might have originated in bats, they aren’t responsible for the transmission of the virus to humans.
More research needs to be done but the World Health Organisation (WHO) is reasonably sure that the animal that transmitted the virus should be a species that was raised for food supply.
And it seems that as people know more about the virus, as well as the importance of bats in our eco-system (keeping the insect population down and helping plants to reproduce), their paranoia is dying down.
ACRES reported that in May 2020, the number of calls has dropped by five times, from 20 to 4 calls.
One of the callers, a Mr Abu, spotted a bat at his balcony.
He had left it alone initially, but after seeing it fall to the ground and struggling, he released it at a tree in a nearby park after advice from ACRES.
Professor Wang Linfa, director of the emerging infectious diseases programme at Duke-NUS Medical School assures that people will not be infected with Covid-19 from bats.
Even if they’re bitten, they’re unlikely to contract the disease.
In Other Words
The ones you should be more afraid of when it comes to contracting Covid-19 is other humans.
So make sure you stay away from hotspots like these in Phase 2, okay?
Meanwhile, for those of us who are afraid of bats, here’s what you should do when you meet one:
- Stay calm
- Leave them alone and they’ll go away naturally
- Wash hands with soap if you come into contact with one
- Install lightings at places where bats may roost
You can find out more here.
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