New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS): Not just humans but animals too need protection from the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) and images of cats wearing face masks in China went viral online, triggering people to share more such images of their pet animals wearing masks.

"Cat in China wearing masks for protection against the coronavirus," posted a user on Twitter.

This led to a barrage of such images coming online from various pet owners in China, with their felines sporting makeshift masks to ward off the deadly coronavirus.

"Poor poor baby. I feel for the pets in China. They are being treated worse than humans of China," commented a user.

Another wrote: "It just made my day.. At least some people are still 'human' being..."

A post said: "I have a British shorthair cat. He is sooo cute. He is my family member. But I have to admit that just a small part of Chinese have relatively high quality and they love and protect animals".

"A caring pet owner," read another post on the micro-blogging platform.