As efforts to stem the spread of a severe type of feline coronavirus that has killed thousands of cats escalate, veterinary facilities in Cyprus have received a first batch of anti-Covid pills from a stockpile originally intended for people.

In what is anticipated to be the beginning of the end of the sickness that has afflicted the Mediterranean country's feline population, the island's health ministry started administering the therapy on August 8, celebrated as International Cat Day.

The country took a stock of "500 boxes of medication," according to Christodoulos Pipis, the government’s veterinary services director.

"This is the first batch of 2,000 packages that will be made available. Each one contains 40 capsules, so we are talking about a total of 80,000 [anti-Covid] pills."

This comes after an "alarming increase" in Cyprus of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) cases caused by the coronavirus, which is almost always fatal if left untreated.

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The virus, also known as the "FCoV-23 outbreak," was originally identified in January in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus. According to the Pancyprian Veterinary Association (PVA), it spread across "the whole island" in three to four months.

The active component in anti-Covid tablets, molnupiravir, has shown to be helpful for cats with FIP even though the mutated feline virus is unrelated to Covid-19 and cannot be caught by humans.

Cat lovers cheered last week when the cabinet declared it would permit some of the island republic's official stock of anti-human coronavirus medication to be utilized. The anti-Covid pills were significantly less expensive at the time.

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