Hong Kong to kill 2,000 hamsters after Covid-19 found in rodents at pet shop

After a worker at a pet shop in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay district was confirmed to have Covid-19, health authorities discovered 11 hamsters at the store were infected with the same Delta variant of the coronavirus on January 18, 2022. The outbreak at the Little Boss pet shop is reportedly the first known case of the rodents contracting the virus outside a laboratory setting. Hong Kong authorities have ordered a mass killing of about 2,000 of the animals, and shops and owners have been told to hand over any hamsters imported after December 22, 2021. At least 40 hamster owners had approached an animal welfare group about abandoning their pets the morning after the government announcement.