A cat’s birthday party caused, a few months ago, a covid-19 outbreak in Santo Domingo, a small seaside city in Central Chile.

Francisco Álvarez, from the Ministry of Health, confirmed it.

“Even though it sounds unbelievable and almost fiction, these things happen in our country,” he said in an official statement.

“There is no doubt people will come up with any excuse to get together,” he added.

“When I heard about this I said… it’s a joke. Probably they said that to hide something else, but it was exactly that,” Álvarez told Radio Bío Bío this Saturday.

Health officials talked to the attendees and six of them confirmed that the party was intended to celebrate a cat’s birthday.

In total, the celebration alone left 15 diagnosed patients.

“The cat never had the virus, but the owner did,” Álvarez revealed.