Covid, in Hong Kong, 2,000 pets will be culled

authorities

have decided to cull over 2,000 pets in response to a Covid outbreak involving hamsters at a pet shop in Causeway Bay. An employee and customer he came in contact with were struck by the virus, and health officials said 11 hamsters taken from the store tested positive, as well as environmental samples from the company's warehouse in Tai Po. Anyone who bought a small rodent since December 22, the RTHK network reported, he is "strongly invited" to return it for testing. Regardless of the result, it will be deleted. Meanwhile, the health authorities of

announced the confirmation of two other cases of contagion from Covid-19, connected to the first contagion of the Omicron variant that emerged over the weekend. Speaking in a briefing, the deputy director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing, Pang Xinghuo, explained that the two new cases - ascertained from 17 to 18 January - are the mother and a colleague of the Omicron case of 15. January, all residing in the Haidian District. After the second case, the Haidian residential complex in which the infected lived was temporarily closed and further tests were started for all residents, in addition to the 16,000 carried out. The additional infections in the capital come just over two weeks before the start of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, fueling new alarm.Yesterday, the Chinese post office attributed the first Omicron infection to a letter from Canada, ordering the disinfection of all correspondence from abroad.