New York City rats can carry Covid variants, new study finds

CDC says animal-to-human transmission is rare but study's lead investigator calls for closer look at virus in rats for new strains

New York City rats may be renowned for carrying pizza through the subway but according to a new study, they can also carry the virus behind Covid-19.

The study released on Thursday in mBio, an open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, concluded that New York rats among a population of roughly 8 million are susceptible to three Covid variants.