Enlarge / Staff with Hong Kong’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Division examine the Little Boss pet retailer in Hong Kong, China, on Tuesday, January 18, 2022. (credit score: Getty | Bloomberg)

Authorities in Hong Kong are planning to cull round 2,000 small animals after a pet retailer worker and a number of other imported hamsters examined constructive for COVID-19, in accordance with a report by the Related Press.

On Monday, the pet retailer worker examined constructive and was discovered to be contaminated with the delta coronavirus variant. A number of hamsters within the retailer, which had just lately been imported from the Netherlands, have been additionally constructive. Town, in the meantime, has been grappling with an outbreak of COVID-19 instances attributable to the omicron variant.

It is unclear if the pet retailer instances are linked and, if they’re, if the worker was contaminated by the hamsters or vice versa. However Hong Kong authorities say they can not exclude the likelihood that the hamsters unfold the virus to the worker. As such, they don’t seem to be taking any probabilities.