Pet Shops Allowed To Reopen After Hamster Checks

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department announced on Saturday that most local pet shops that sell hamsters would be allowed to resume business from Sunday after tests for Covid-19 in their animals and premises came back negative.

Shops selling hamsters were told to close earlier this month after samples from hamsters collected at a pet shop in Causeway Bay tested positive for the virus. Imported hamsters have been cited as the likely source of an outbreak of the delta variant of Covid, and officials ordered a cull of more than 2,000 hamsters.

A department spokesman said the closure of the shops was part of a series of anti-epidemic measures ordered after hamsters at several stores tested positive.

"Hamsters from those pet shops would be taken for the Covid-19 virus test and humane dispatch, while other animals of those pet shops would also need to undergo tests until they passed," the spokesman said.

"The pet shops must be thoroughly disinfected and cleaned and environmental swabs taken from the shops must pass the virus test before they can resume business."

The department said it had tested 1,134 samples from animals other than hamsters, including rabbits and chinchillas, all of which came back negative, as did 1,124 environmental swabs.

However five shops, including those linked to the outbreak, have been told to remain closed for further disinfection and cleaning or for further investigation by the Centre for Health Protection.

"All the other concerned pet shops, on the other hand, have been thoroughly disinfected and cleaned and the environmental swabs collected from these shops have all passed the Covid-19 virus test," the spokesman added.

"Therefore, the department has allowed these pet shops, other than the five mentioned above, to resume business from tomorrow."