A hotline for COVID-19 inquiries related to hamsters is also being established.
Hong Kong:
Hong Kong ordered the culling of 2,000 hamsters on Tuesday and warned pet owners against kissing the animals after a flurry of new COVID-19 cases were discovered at a pet store.
Outbreaks of human cases of Delta variant linked to store employees prompted tests on hundreds of animals, with 11 hamsters showing positive.
That has led to a pet rodent crackdown on Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, which is following the mainland’s zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19 even as much of the world moves to live with it.
The territory’s Health Minister Sophia Chan stressed at a news conference that there was no evidence domestic animals could transmit the disease to humans, but authorities nonetheless cautiously banned the import and trade of the animals. rodent.
Director of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Leung Siu-fai Leung also told reporters: “Pet owners should maintain good hygiene, including washing their hands after touching animals, handling food or other animals. their other belongings, and avoid kissing animals.”
“If citizens are keeping hamsters, they should keep them at home. Don’t bring them out.”
HOTLINE of HAMSTER
Hundreds of samples have been collected from animals, including rabbits and chinchillas, but only hamsters have tested positive so far.
“As a precaution, we will take precautions against any possibility of transmission that we cannot rule out,” said Mr. Chan.
After three months without local transmission, Hong Kong has had dozens of new human cases this year, causing new restrictions on flights and social life.
Thousands of people have been taken to a temporary government isolation facility. Most of the new cases are from the highly contagious new breed of Omicron, although the cluster was tracked by a pet store employee, Delta.
Leung said about 2,000 hamsters at 34 pet stores and storage facilities will be “humanely” taken down. He added, anyone buying hamsters after December 22, 2021 should hand them over to the authorities for destruction and keep them out of the streets.
A hotline for COVID-19 inquiries related to hamsters is also being established.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
