Officials in Hong Kong plan to put down 2,000 hamsters and other small animals, concerned they could transmit COVID-19 to humans.
The decision was made after a pet store employee tested positive for the Delta variant on Monday, and several hamsters at the same store also tested positive.
Hong Kong will also ban the sale and import of small mammals for the time being.
About 2,000 small animals, including hamsters, will be killed in Hong Kong after several tested positive for coronavirus. Officials in the city made the decision after a pet store employee was infected with the virus. https://t.co/Xsv516jxDE
— WJZ | CBS Baltimore (@wjz) January 18, 2022
U.S. authorities including the CDC do not believe that animal-to-human transmission plays a major role in the spread of the coronavirus.
Couldn’t Hong Kong officials isolate the animals instead of putting them all down? How would people react if something like this happened in the U.S.?
