#16,700
A week ago, the Hong Kong Free Press ran a story called Quarantined Covid patients face jail, fines if they refuse to hand over pets to gov’t, as NGO expresses concern, following announced changes to the city's COVID regulations that implied that exposed pets might be forcibly `isolated or quarantined'.
The following passage is excerpted from that March 29th regulatory announcement: The Government amends regulations under Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance.
Furthermore, adopting compulsory isolation and quarantine measures in respect of infected persons and their close contacts is key to containing the spread of COVID-19 in the community and providing early support to and treatment of cases. The Government has amended Cap. 599A to strengthen the legal provisions for adopting measures in respect of quarantine or isolation of individual persons, articles (including animals) or places, including providing for offences for non-compliance with quarantine or isolation orders and introducing relevant penalties, the maximum of which is a fine at level 3 ($10,000) and imprisonment for six months, while also refining provisions regulating entry or leaving of the premises of isolation/quarantine.
Since then, many residents of Hong Kong now fear their pets - including dogs and cats - might be seized, and possibly destroyed - by the government in the city's pursuit of Zero-COVID.
A tactic that was previously employed 3 months ago when COVID infected hamsters were discovered in several Hong Kong pet stores (see Hong Kong Detects COVID In Pet Store Hamsters - Suspends Sales & Orders Cull).
It should be noted that unlike with dogs and cats - hamsters and mink have been shown to be particularly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection - and are regarded as `higher risk' animals (see WHO/FAO/OIE statement).
Five days ago RFA (Radio Free Asia) ran a similar story:
Hong Kong changes law, forcing owners to give up pets 'believed' to have COVID-19
Pets must be handed over 'for humane dispatch' if an official merely believes they could be infected.
The public backlash against this new regulation has grown stronger over the past few days, and today Hong Kong's ACFD ( Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department) has issued a`clarification' of sorts.
One that doesn't deny the government's new legal power to confiscate and destroy pets, but suggests - at least for dogs and cats - that given that the low risk of transmission to humans, that health officers would be unlikely to seize those types of pets unless additional `evidence' of risk emerged.
Whether this - We can (but we probably won't) - clarification will prove reassuring for the residents of Hong Kong remains to be seen.
In response to public concerns about handling of animals tested positive for COVID-19 virus given the amendments of the Prevention and Control of Disease Regulation (Cap. 599A), a spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) today (April 18) issued the following statement.
Adopting compulsory isolation and quarantine measures in respect of infected persons and their close contacts, as well as timely handling of possibly contaminated articles is key to containing the spread of COVID-19 in the community and providing early support to and treatment of cases. Pursuant to the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance (Cap. 599) and Prevention and Control of Disease Regulation (Cap. 599A) (the Regulation), if a health officer has reason to believe that an article (including an animal) is, or may have been, infected with a specified infectious disease, the health officer may order a disease control measure to be carried out in respect of the article or destroy the article.
The Government has amended the Regulation recently, including stipulating that the owner of the article concerned (including animal) shall hand over the article according to the instructions of the health officer, and providing for offences for non-compliance with the concerned instructions and introducing relevant penalties. In view of the latest epidemiology and volatile epidemiological situation, the Government needs to implement effective public health prevention and control measures to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.
As far as COVID-19 is concerned, except for a small number of animal species (for example minks and hamsters), there is currently no evidence showing that infected animals (for example cats and dogs) would transmit the virus to humans. Hence, the chance of humans being infected with COVID-19 through animals is very low.
In these circumstances, it is expected that the chance where the power need to be invoked to request the owner concerned to hand over his pet is not high. However, if there is sufficient scientific evidence showing that there are animals spreading the virus to humans like the case where hamsters spread the virus to humans earlier this year, then the Department of Health and AFCD will prudently consider exercising such power to handle the concerned animals to stop the spread of the virus.
In the case where the pet owner of a mammal is a confirmed COVID-19 patient or a close contact and needs to be hospitalised or isolated in any quarantine facilities and no evidence has been found that the infected animal concerned will spread the COVID-19 virus to humans, the AFCD will adopt the measure that has been in use, i.e. after obtaining the owner's consent, the animal concerned would be sent to the New Territories South Animal Management Centre for isolation and veterinary surveillance.AFCD staff will take care of the animal and make special arrangements for the animal concerned taking into consideration its health condition during the time. Samples will also be taken from the animal for COVID-19 virus testing according to its conditions. Arrangement to return the animal to its owner will be made upon negative testing results and satisfactory results in veterinary surveillance.
Apart from handing the animals to AFCD, pet owners can also ask their relatives or friends to help taking care of their animals.
Ends/Monday, April 18, 2022Issued at HKT 17:30
This from the CDC.
Risk of animals spreading SARS-CoV-2 to people
Based on the available information to date, the risk of animals spreading COVID-19 to people is considered to be low.
At this time, there is no evidence that animals play a significant role in spreading SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to people. More studies are needed to understand if and how different animals could be affected by SARS-CoV-2.
Some coronaviruses that infect animals can be spread to people and then spread between people, but this is rare. This is what happened with SARS-CoV-2, which likely originated in bats.
