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Authorities in Hong Kong have ordered the deaths of some 2,000 hamsters and other small rodent pets after health officials said they may be responsible for infecting a pet shop worker with COVID-19.
Eleven samples from hamsters at the Little Boss pet shop in the Chinese territory have tested positive for the Delta variant of COVID-19. Official suspicion fell on the tiny creatures after a 23-year-old worker at the pet shop tested positive for COVID-19.
While authorities agreed Tuesday there was no evidence to date that pets can transmit the SARS-CoV-2 virus to humans, customers who went to the store after Jan. 7 will be subjected to quarantine. Pet owners who bought hamsters beginning Dec. 22 were advised to turn their pets over to authorities to be tested for the virus. If the animals test positive, the owners will have to undergo quarantine. Regardless of the test result, the hamster will be put down.
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All stores selling hamsters were also ordered to cease operations.
However, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying that health authorities believe “it’s very likely that the transmission this time is from animals to humans.” Genome sequencing of the virus found in the animals, imported from the Netherlands, shows it is the same as the virus present in the pet shop worker.
“We don’t want to cull all the animals,” conservation official Thomas Sit told reporters. “But we need to protect public health and animal health. We have no choice. We have to make a firm decision.”
It’s the latest dramatic measure Hong Kong officials have taken as part of the city’s “zero COVID” approach. After a cluster of fewer than 100 infections of the Omicron variant broke out in the city of 7.5 million, officials imposed 2020-style social distancing restrictions, including closing bars and gyms and ordering restaurants to stop dine-in service at 6 p.m. All flights from eight countries, including the U.S. and…
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Source : time
