Did Hamsters Infect a Woman with Covid-19?

Hamsters can easily spread viruses, says Yuen

I was going to write about the absurdity of Chinese claims that a piece of mail from Toronto that arrived in Beijing had Covid-19 causing at least two people to be infected, but now that insanity has been topped by Hong Kong health officials announcing some 2,000 hamsters will be culled, claiming some of them tested preliminary positive and could spread the virus in the city.

But first the mail.

The Beijing Centre for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday said traces of the Omicron variant was found on a letter mailed from Toronto and and suggested it could have been the source of the infection for the recipient.

Health Canada says virus on mail extremely low

Was there any genome sequencing done to verify if it is similar to Canadian strains of Omicron?

Nevertheless upon receiving media enquiries, Health Canada said while mail could be contaminated, "the risk of Covid-19 infection when handling paper mail or cardboard packages, including international mail, is extremely low.

"In general, coronavirus including variants do not spread from products or packaging shipped over a period of days or weeks," the health agency said.

Despite debunking Chinese concerns, Beijing has ordered the country's residents to stop ordering things from high-risk countries (basically anywhere in the world), and if they do receive mail, they must be double vaccinated and open the package outside the home wearing gloves.

Is this an inadvertent way to slow down or stop the posting of goods into China, such as illicit goods during the Olympics? In any event it is not a case heard elsewhere around the world, and sounds like a desperate attempt at trying to deflect attention away from the country's issues in battling the virus?

Meanwhile in Hong Kong things are becoming just as absurd.

China orders people to open their mail outside

This afternoon at a press conference held by the Centre for Health Protection, health officials announced that some 2,000 hamsters must be culled as some tested positive for Covid-19, and 11 of them were linked to two infected people who worked in a pet shop in Causeway Bay.

They believe this is the first animal-to-human transmission of the virus. All 34 licensed pet shops that sell hamsters must suspend operations, and the 150 customers who visited Little Boss shop must go into quarantine (and surrender the little furry creatures). 

The cull applies to all hamsters that were bought since December 22, when a shipment of the animals arrived from the Netherlands. They were transferred to a warehouse in Tai Po and a second shipment arrived on January 7.

"We have assessed the risks of these batches are relatively high and therefore made the decision based on public health needs," said Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Dr Leung Siu-fai. "We urge all pet owners to observe strict hygiene when handling their pets and cages, Do not kiss or abandon them on the streets."

When doing the genomic sequencing, Dr Yuen Kwok-yung of the University of Hong Kong said they had trouble mapping out the mutations from the sample taken from the shop assistant. 

A shop assistant was infected... by hamsters?

Wasn't she wearing a mask? How could a hamster transmit the virus to her?

"Some mutations found in that worker's [sample] could not be identified in a global genomic data bank," he said. "Experts are concerned whether there are any problems with those mutations... that's why we need to be extra cautious."

While some of the hamsters have tested preliminary positive -- and by the way, how are they tested? -- Yuen said it would take time for hamsters to show symptoms after infection, and keeping 2,000 alive could pose health risks to people looking after them.

"Hamsters are often used to do experiments because they are very sensitive to viruses and are easily infected. They usually release a great amount of virus in the first 10 days of being infected," he explained, calling the decision to cull the animals "decisive and wise".

The health authorities said the animals would be tested before being put down.

But those assurances sparked serious concern among animal welfare groups, including the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, saying the AFCD should review its approach before taking "drastic action".

Some 2,000 hamsters will be culled

This evening people in hazmat suits arrived at the aforementioned pet shop with people looking on. 

How do parents explain to their children that their recently acquired pet hamster needs to be surrendered and destroyed?

Can parents sue the government for causing the emotional distress of their children?

The culling of these animals reminds me of the "Four Pests Campaign" during the Great Leap Forward from 1958 to 1962, when rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows were to be eliminated. 

Sparrows were thought to consume four pounds of grain per bird, and so the Chinese set out to stop these animals from robbing their food. They banged pots and pans to make it so noisy for the sparrows that they couldn't rest in their nests and would drop dead from the sky. Their eggs were smashed, chicks killed.

What happened? The sparrows were nearly killed into extinction, and resulted in a surge in bed bugs...

Gov't Defends Culling Wild Boars

The wild boars were lured down with bread by the authorities

Animal rights groups are up in arms after the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department captured and killed seven wild boars in Wong Chuk Hang.

In plain sight of the media, the AFCD lured the wild pigs with bread -- which the government has repeatedly told the public not to feed them -- and then tranquilized them with dart guns.

Seven wild boars were culled 

It seems the AFCD is now taking drastic action after a wild boar knocked down an auxiliary policeman before biting him in the leg and then the animal plunged 10 stories to its death in a residential car park in Tin Hau last Wednesday.

There had been numerous complaints from the public for the authorities to do something about the wild boars, capture them and take them to remote areas, instead of ignoring the problem and worse having ignorant people feeding the animals as if they were pets. The number of sightings involving wild boars rose from 225 in 2011 to 1,002 last year.

When criticized for using food to lure the wild boars down, Simon Chan Kin-fung, the department's assistant director for conservation said on a radio show: "Even if we did not use food to attract them down from the hill yesterday, they would still come [to urban areas]."

Perhaps what made the optics even worse was that several of the boars had young ones with them when they were "compassionately" put down.

Police officer bit in leg by boar

"Some other parts of the world have been using the hunting method. We are using a very humane way to put down the wild boars, with dart guns and medicine injection. We will continue to use food to capture the wild boars in the city area," Chan said.

Last week the department announced that wild boars in urban areas would be "regularly captured for humane dispatch with a view to reducing their number and nuisance"... in other words cull them.

The previous strategy was to capture them, neuter them so they would not be able to breed and then relocate them to a remote area. 

About 20 staff were involved in capturing and euthanising the seven animals, which weighed between 50k to 170kg.

Chan said the department only targeted wild pigs that were frequently found in urban areas, not the ones in rural places.

However, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals condemned the AFCD for its actions, accusing officials of ignoring suggestions on how to manage the problem.

"The SPCA reiterates that a non-lethal approach to wildlife management is always preferred, and is against the idea of hunting boars, as this has proved to be problematic on several fronts," it said.

The boars had young ones with them last night

Roni Wong Ho-yin, a Hong Kong Wild Boar Concern Group committee member who witnessed the operation, described the use of food to capture the animals as "despicable and bloody".

He said the bait could attract animals that humans were not regularly feeding.

"The department has been educating people not to feed the wild boars," he said. "But they are doing something self-contradictory. This could change the behaviour of some wild boars which are not used to being fed by humans."

Others felt the public must be educated not to feed the animals because it gives them an unnatural food source that encourages them to reproduce. 

So if they are, then it seems they are reproducing at a much faster rate than the AFCD can neuter them, or the authorities are not capturing enough of them to really make an impact on the population numbers.

An artistic impression of the wild boar cull...

In any event, while there was a lot of outrage online, one artist took to his blank page and created a riff off of artist Wang Xingwei's riff off of the Tiananmen Square massacre picture of people riding bicycles and taking two penguins that were shot in the chest.

Instead a Hong Kong artist showed boars riding a bicycle with a wooden board behind, carrying another wounded boar, one in the foreground wearing a yellow helmet and tears dripping from its eye.

Even wild pigs have feelings too...

Picture of the Day: Lai See Envelopes

Some of the more creative lai see envelopes this year celebrating the dog

This being the Year of the Dog has heralded many displays featuring cute canines and it also extended to lai see envelopes.

Designers have been given a lot of space to create some fun envelopes and these are the favourite ones I received this year.

Clockwise from the left is one from Harbour City, with a complicated way to open the envelope by releasing its folded paws to be able to get the money note inside. Why does the dog not have eyes? Seems weird, but cute nonetheless.

Next the red and gold envelope from auction house Christie's gets the award for best graphic design. Look closely and not only are there red dogs, but gold ones too!

We also can't resist the gorgeous face of this mutt from the SPCA that says 一狗万利.

Finally, a red and blue thick envelope from ba&sh, a fashion brand. Pull the gold tab and a and the red dogs turn into a red background with gold lettering that says "Happy Chinese New Year!"

Swimming and Dogs on Sunday

There was little fanfare about the Kennedy Town indoor pools open

I don't take the bus home often these days, mostly because of time. But yesterday I wasn't in a rush and did, only to find that when the bus passed the Kennedy Town Swimming Pool, I was shocked to see people standing outside.

It was just before 6pm and I saw a banner out front that announced the indoor pool was open!

I had read earlier it wouldn't open until April!

When I went home I checked the government website and yes -- it was open since February 9.

At left is the 50-metre pool, 25 metres on right, and jacuzzi

So this morning before a brunch appointment at noon, I rushed over to the pool to check it out.

Underneath the futuristic roof are two pools, one 25 metres long, the other 50 metres. The former looked like it was occupied with adults and children taking swimming lessons so I went over to the other pool.

While it was great to be in the pool again, it was dismaying to find nothing had been done to fix the problem of people swimming into each other thanks to no proper lanes nor separating people according to their speed.

As a result (much like my previous public pool experiences), I had to keep a constant eye on what was in front of me in case someone literally popped up in front of me and had to duck the side.I also had to pass many people because they swam so slow.

Yes, many of them were men!

I'm not used to swimming 50 metres so I got tired out quickly, but this will be good practice for me to build my endurance. In the end I swam 1,500 metres in about 35 minutes.

So many puppies asleep together, the latest addition at the top

In the changing room I overheard two women, one senior, one middle-aged, exclaim how wonderful it was to have the indoor pool open. They found the Dr Sun Yat-Sen pool in Sai Ying Pun inconvenient to get to, and so this one was a marked improvement. I hope they won't tell all their friends...

At the same time it'll be interesting to see the dynamics in the pools once the outdoor one is open too.

I still fondly remember swimming outdoors in November, when the water temperature was a bit cooler, which deterred many people from swimming outside, and a bonus was a nice tan on my back.

This little guy was very cute to meet!

After my brunch appointment in Central, I decided to walk home and took the long route, popping into stores I was interested in and then when I approached Sai Ying Pun I remembered a friend telling me about the SPCA having dogs available to pet from 3pm on Sundays.

I headed over and saw the "Adopt a dog" sign. In a makeshift pen, five puppies slept inside it. One of the volunteers gently pinched their ears but they were dead asleep. There were two dogs that were outside the pen on leashes. I got to pet one of them, a lovely mutt that was curious and very gentle, who didn't mind us patting his head.

It's too bad they are located in such a small obscure area so not many people know they are there. But it was nice to see some cute dogs and hope to visit them again soon...