What’s trending?

Last week, the hashtag #Daxing households with pets can leave one person at home# was trending on Weibo, as around 2000 residents from the latest Covid-19 hotspot in the district were ordered into hotel quarantine. The pet policy was announced following pet owners posting videos of their furry friends being left alone for an unforeseen length of time as the owners were made to leave without them.

What’s the story?

The issue started to snowball after a video posted be a local cat-owning Daxing resident who had been told to quarantine away from home for an unspecified amount of time without any reassurance that her pets could be fed while she was away. The post was viewed millions of times on Weibo, and commented on by others in a similar situation before local authorities took remedial action.

Following the outrage, the district’s deputy mayor Han Xinxing announced that one member of each household with pets could return to the family home for the duration of the local lockdown. A day later, Daxing issued a new policy that pets and their owners could quarantine together in hotels.

Last year, many pets in the original epicenter of the coronavirus suffered or died due to Wuhan’s 76-day lockdown, and more recently access to food and necessities under quarantine was a source of concern for people in the northern city of Tonghua, as they fought to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in January.

What are people saying online?

Pet owners feared local lockdowns of their residential compounds would leave their pets stranded, with one person writing “we have no idea if the restrictions will last 14 or 21 days or longer.”

Responding to the change in policy, many expressed gratitude, saying “they had been able to go pick up their pets and take them to a new hotel for quarantine.” Despite dealing with a fast-moving situation, Daxing authorities had been quick to act, they said, in “respect of life and the emotional needs of the people.”

The original posters urged people to switch their focus to animal conditions in Tonghua, which had faced trouble with basic supplies at the outset of its local lockdown.

Related: Exclusive: Game Executive Murder Suspect a ‘Breaking Bad’ Fan, Tested Poisons on Pets, Sources Say

Coronavirus Puzzle Persists as Another Hong Kong Pet Tests Positive, Six Others Quarantined