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...

Chinese New Year Cultural Appropriation

Don't decorate a CNY dish with funeral paper

Late last night, a former colleague now based in London had a freak out on Twitter when she saw the UK newspaper The Guardian post recipes for the upcoming Lunar New Year, but the accompanying pictures demonstrated no Chinese person was consulted to see if the decorations were culturally appropriate.

One picture shows a plate of pork and crab potstickers -- they should really be boiled dumplings -- on a piece of batik fabric -- not really Chinese -- but worst of all decorated with joss paper that are usually burned to pay respects to ancestors when grave sweeping.

Funeral envelopes mixed with lai see packets...

In addition, the chopsticks look like joss sticks, another not really good thing to do, and what's with the ancient Chinese coins?

Meanwhile BBC Food also posted recipes by School of Wok founder Jeremy Pang. One of them is lo mein with scallops and tenderstem broccoli. While it's fine to have the lai see envelope as a decoration, next to it is another envelope -- given out by the grieving family to funeral attendees, which usually includes a coin, tissue and a piece of candy.

May we also point out the turquoise chopsticks are really ugly?

These ignorant gaffes sparked or rather led to an explosion of complaints from Chinese people about how everyone else is so ignorant of Chinese culture, sometimes even stabbing a dish of noodles with chopsticks that again look like joss sticks.

One person remarked: "I'm absolutely horrified by this. This is like putting up a Christmas tree at a funeral."

Stabbing dish like joss sticks

Others also remarked how whenever Thai or Filipino food is styled, chopsticks are always placed next to the dish, when they typically eat with a fork and spoon.

For me at least, this incident just shows how there is a lack of diversity in these two news organisations, and no one bothered to check to see if these pictures were culturally correct.

The people who created the recipes were Taiwanese and a second-generation British-Chinese. Or if they weren't available, how about some professors in Chinese sociology or culture?

The Guardian has since apologised for the mistake, and BBC Food is looking into its gaffe.

Wonder how the Year of the Tiger will turn out for them...

Omicron and Delta Variants Found in HK

Yuen holds up the floor plan of the hotel with two infections

The Centre for Health Protection is warning the possibility that not only the Omicron virus is in Hong Kong, but so is the more serious Delta variant.

A woman who worked in a pet shop in Causeway Bay and had hot pot with friends in Yau Ma Tei, was tested for the virus and had the Delta strain. 

Chuang Shuk-kwan of the CHP says they are still trying to find the source of the virus.

Chuang (left) warns of Delta variant in HK

"There may be Delta strain circulating. So it is not only restricted to the Omicron cases we detected recently. So of course we're very worried whether there are other sources of infections that have not been detected. As for the source of [her] infection, we're still investigating," she said.

Today there are 11 recorded infections, eight of which are imported.

Another interesting case involves a woman from Pakistan who completed her hotel quarantine and tested negative throughout the stay, but five days later tested positive for the virus. She may have caught it from another hotel occupant in an adjacent room. Needless to say everybody who did quarantine in the same area of that floor will have to go to a quarantine camp for another 14 days...

University of Hong Kong microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung inspected the Silka Seaview Hotel in Yau Ma Tei and believes the virus may have spread through the corridors when the doors of the guest rooms were opened.

"Tests on the spot showed it was possible the air could go from [one room to the other] through the doors," he said. "There are three air purifiers in the corridors, but there is no air purifier in the rooms. But we were told that they would be installed from [Monday].

"The air purifiers in the corridors were set to auto mode. That is, when the air is detected cleansed, the purifiers will go to sleep or not run at full power. We have advised the hotel management against running the air purifiers in auto mode."

Got the booster today, so far so good

Meanwhile a bit of good news: I got my booster shot today in Sai Wan Ho, the only location on Hong Kong island at the moment. It was fast and painless, though I'm dreading the possible side effects that may happen in the next few hours.

Another thing to cheer about: a young woman I know professionally finally got married to her long-time boyfriend today. So wonderful to watch the video of their nuptials on Facebook! 

When they were allowed to kiss, they did a quick peck on the lips, but after cajoling from witnesses, they did a longer smooth to much applause. The event too out the monotony -- albeit temporarily -- from being reminded of being stuck in Hong Kong for so long...

Despite Warnings Crowds Flock to Flower Markets

This afternoon Mongkok people were busy buying flowers

It's ironic that the Hong Kong government cancelled the Lunar New Year fairs, open-air markets selling flowers, snacks and festive decorations when instead people flocked to the flower market in Mongkok today.

Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee said yesterday it was a tough decision to make to cancel the fairs.

Chan says cancelling fairs was a difficult decision

"From a health perspective, we want to control the epidemic as soon as possible so we cannot hold large gatherings," she said.

However, judging from the hordes of people in Mongkok's flower area known as fa hui, it perhaps would have been better to hold the fair anyway.

"How are they supposed to do crowd control in the middle of the road? Why can't we just set up the fairs with social-distancing measures and vaccine bubble requirements?" asked a 62-year-old mandarin plant vendor surnamed Leung.

"It's a big headache. We were all looking forward to selling our produce at the fairs, but now we have to make last-minute changes on how to distribute tens of thousands of mandarin plants."

What a logistical nightmare.

In the meantime the good news is that there were only five new cases of Covid-19 recorded, yesterday there were nine. 

Children can get vaccinated as early as next week

Children as young as five can get the Sinovac vaccine from next week, while those wanting the Pfizer BioNTech one will have to wait until after Chinese New Year.

One health expert is calling for a review of coronavirus measures, saying perhaps the use of partition boards are not helpful in terms of air flow and that tables should be more spaced apart.

Small eateries cannot place tables 1.5 metres apart and instead use partitions as a bid to be able to have more customers, but Dr Gabriel Leung of Hong Kong University says the partitions could block ventilation. He also adds when dine-in services resume, perhaps restaurants could open until 9pm... 

Meanwhile my relatives still refuse to get vaccinated even though that will mean not being able to dine in restaurants if they don't have at least one jab when the social-distancing measures are lifted.

"Then we just won't go to restaurants," she said. 

Maybe partitions aren't a good thing anymore?

While they often eat at home for dinner, they frequent eateries like cha chaan tengs and sometimes have dim sum for lunch, but in the next few weeks they won't be able to do it at all. There will also be a push later for people to have two jabs in order to enter restaurants. Then what?

"We'll see when that happens," she replied.

Completely impractical and irrational... but then again so is this government that is making out Omicron to be a deathly virus and refuses to live with the reality that Covid-19 is here to stay...