In Hong Kong, the population is ready for resistance again. This time, however, the enemy is not China and its control aims, but the mobilization opposes the draconian measure of the health authorities against about 2,000 hamsters, rabbits, chinchillas and guinea pigs, decided on Tuesday due to 11 animals positive for Covid in a pet shop in Causeway Bay: as of Thursday evening, just 68 small rodents had been delivered to the collection center in Hong Kong for their culling.
On social media, in addition to the explosion of anger, videos of the nuisance action were posted, made above all by very young people, committed to snatching the pets away from the owners with desperate appeals, up to the entrance of the collection structure. The validity of the “precautionary measure”, which affected pets bought after December 22, was reiterated by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation of the former colony which, in a note, asked to “immediately stop such actions and to return the hamsters taken away ‘.
Animal welfare organizations challenged the government’s decision and urged people not to hand over the hamsters. For the inhabitants of Hong Kong it was in fact “the straw that broke the camel’s back” after a series of restrictions that are often not welcomed, as the Washington Post writes. She tells the newspaper Jessica, not her real name, that she offered to host a hamster on social media. “I can keep it forever or return it once the emergency is over, if the person wants it back. If I had one I would prefer to get infected with Covid rather than hand it over to the authorities. Here in Hong Kong it makes a big deal of it, ”he says. On the possible action of the police, he said, “I don’t care, here they arrest you even if you have done nothing. Some of my friends are in prison, not for a hamster. ‘ Local media broadcast videos of children crying as they hand over their hamsters to the authorities and cited on condition of anonymity several volunteers ready to rescue them. And then falsified purchase certificates have sprung up, to show that they are not among those imported to Hong Kong after December 22 and therefore are not potentially at risk of transmitting the coronavirus.
The local government has also mobilized Hong Kong’s leading virus expert, Yuen Kwok-Yung, a world-renowned microbiologist, on the matter, according to which the series of infections linked to hamsters could contain a new mutation of the virus, justifying an urgent effort to risk containment by killing thousands of pets. “Faced with these multiple unknowns, if the spread of the mutated virus in the community is not stopped soon, it could spread to Hong Kong, on the mainland and abroad, leading to another disaster,” said Yuen, according to whom the viral strain it is potentially a recently adapted one, with a mutation known as D427G.
The situation in the city, despite the adoption of the Chinese model of ‘zero tolerance’ at Covid, has shown risky flaws. More than three weeks have passed since the absence of local cases, while the daily count is constantly growing. From the three infections of seven days ago, it has passed to 18 today, the maximum since March 2021, plus another 20 suspected cases whose origin is however uncertain. Officials have ordered the lockdown of residents of a social housing building in the New Territories: nearly 3,000 people must undergo the anti-Covid test daily, being able to leave the building only after a negative result. The order matured after the ascertainment of 13 preliminary cases, in addition to the three Omicrons ascertained, suggesting the presence of a ‘super loudspeaker’.
Authorities suspect, according to local media, that an infected man visited multiple garbage collection areas to rake up items to recycle or resell, creating a super-spread effect that sowed the virus throughout the building. “Clearly there is an outbreak in the community and the situation is worrying” “commented the Minister of Health, Sophia Chan. Then every means is useful if it can kill the virus, even the sacrifice of over 2,000 hamsters and small animals.
Boom private jets to leave with your dogs and cats
Given the growing concern, many are leaving the city of Hong Kong, but restrictions due to the pandemic have severely limited cargo space on commercial flights. And so those who want to go with their dog or cat also get to charter private jets for their pets. The cost is considerable: you get to over 25 thousand dollars, to have a ‘seat’ on the plane and next to your puppy.
Hong Kong’s population fell by 1.2% in the first half of 2021, and those who can afford it leave the city taking their ‘pet’ with them, but this is an impossible feat because flights are scarce.
With the city’s zero-Covid regime – authorities have banned flights from 8 countries leading to a wave of cancellations – the trend is consolidating: according to the FT, potential travelers are regrouping to use jets. private at a cost of about $ 25,665 for each ticket ‘accompanied’ by their puppy. The rigid land quarantine regime is leading many citizens to flee the city, with a growing number of people joining immigration programs set up by the UK, Australia and Canada in the wake of political unrest in China in 2019.
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