Only hamsters tested negative for Covid-19 can be imported and sold.
Hong Kong will resume imports of hamsters in January, officials said Thursday, nearly a year after the slaughter of 2,000 of these rodents at the height of the Covid-19 epidemic in this territory. Only hamsters that test negative for coronavirus can be imported for sale, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation told AFP on Thursday.
Commercial imports of these small mammals were suspended in January 2022 after a pet store employee and nearly a dozen hamsters tested positive for the Delta variant of the coronavirus. As part of the strict policy ofzero covidauthorities had also urged hamster owners to hand in their rodents for slaughter, sparking outcry from animal advocates and many locals.
These measures had been taken at the start of a wave of the Omicron variant responsible for the death of 9000 people and which gave Hong Kong one of the highest death rates per capita in the world last year, many elderly people having moreover refused to be vaccinated. The government had defended these draconian measures, in particular invoking research according to which hamsters could be infected with the coronavirus and transmit it to human beings.
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The suspension of imports, initially relating to all small mammals, was limited in May to hamsters. The policy of “zero covidled by Hong Kong has hit its economy hard, driven residents out of the city and isolated the territory internationally for more than two years. Hong Kong began to relax its health strategy at the end of 2022, although certain measures remain in place, such as the compulsory wearing of masks indoors and outdoors.
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