HONG KONG --
Hong Kong authorities stated Tuesday that they may kill about 2,000 small animals, together with hamsters, after a number of of the rodents examined optimistic for the coronavirus at a pet retailer the place an worker was additionally contaminated.
The town can even cease the sale of hamsters and the import of small mammals, in accordance with officers from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Division. The pet store worker examined optimistic for the Delta variant on Monday, and a number of other hamsters imported from the Netherlands on the retailer examined optimistic as effectively.
Based on the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, animals don't seem to play a major position in spreading the coronavirus. However Hong Kong authorities stated they don't seem to be ruling out transmission between animals and people.
"We can't exclude the chance that the shopkeeper was in reality really contaminated from the hamsters," stated Edwin Tsui, a controller on the Centre for Well being Safety.
Whereas this coronavirus most definitely jumped from animals to people within the first place, the outbreak grew to become a pandemic as a result of the virus spreads so simply between individuals. Minks are the one recognized animals to have caught the virus from individuals and unfold it again, in accordance with Dr. Scott Weese at Ontario Veterinary Faculty.
Leung Siu-fai, director of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Division, stated throughout a information convention that homeowners ought to maintain hamsters at house, and never take them out. "All pet homeowners ought to observe good private hygiene, and after you've got been involved with animals and their meals, it's best to wash your palms," he stated.
"Don't kiss your pets," he added.
Clients who bought hamsters from the shop after Jan. 7 can be traced and be topic to obligatory quarantine and should hand over their hamsters to authorities to be put down, officers stated.
They stated all pet shops in Hong Kong should cease promoting hamsters and that about 2,000 small mammals, together with hamsters and chinchillas, can be killed in a humane method.
Clients who purchased hamsters in Hong Kong from Dec. 22 can be topic to obligatory testing and are urged not contact others till their checks have returned destructive. If their hamsters check optimistic, they are going to be topic to quarantine.
Hong Kong's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals stated it was "shocked and anxious" by the choice to kill the animals, and urged the federal government to not "take any drastic motion earlier than reviewing its strategy."
Hong Kong has been grappling with a neighborhood Omicron outbreak traced to a number of Cathay Pacific crew members who dined at bars and eating places throughout the town earlier than testing optimistic for the Omicron variant.
The federal government introduced late Monday that two former flight attendants have been arrested for leaving their properties throughout quarantine and later being confirmed to have coronavirus infections. It didn't determine their employer, however stated the 2 arrived from the U.S. on Dec. 24 and 25 and "carried out pointless actions" whereas beneath medical surveillance.
The arrests got here after Cathay Pacific stated it had fired two crew members for breaching coronavirus protocols. It beforehand apologized and known as their actions "extraordinarily disappointing." The corporate needed to reduce on flights -- each passenger and cargo -- in January due to tightened virus curbs.
The 2 have been launched on bail and can have their case heard in courtroom on Feb. 9. If convicted of violating anti-epidemic laws, they may resist six months' imprisonment and a high quality of as much as 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$642).
Beforehand in Hong Kong, some air and sea crew members may isolate at house beneath quarantine exemptions. Laws had been tightened on Dec. 31 to require crew members to isolate in a chosen quarantine resort for a couple of week.
Correction:
This story has been corrected to say 2,000 small animals can be killed, together with hamsters. A earlier model of this story incorrectly acknowledged that 2,000 hamsters can be killed.
A staffer from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Division walks previous a pet store which was closed after some pet hamsters had been, authorities stated, examined optimistic for the coronavirus, in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. (AP Picture/Kin Cheung)
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