Hong Kong to Cull Over 1,000 Hamsters After Delta Flare

(Bloomberg) — Hong Kong ordered the culling of thousands of imported hamsters on the suspicion they may have spread Covid-19 to humans, closed shops selling them and sent more than 100 pet shop visitors into quarantine as part of its fight to eliminate the virus.

Nearly a dozen hamsters imported from the Netherlands and sold at a local pet store called Little Boss were found to be infected with the virulent delta variant of Covid-19, which hadn’t been detected in the city for months until a worker at the shop tested positive. Samples from the shop’s warehouse in another part of the city also showed traces of the virus.