The city's government prompted a backlash last week after ordering the cull of more than 2,200 of the animals - with owners ordered to surrender their pets for 'humane dispatch'.
The customers were also told they would be subject to mandatory testing and were urged not to go into the community until their tests had returned negative.The city's agriculture, fisheries and conservation department said it has tested 1,134 samples from animals other than hamsters, such as rabbits and chinchillas, and none of them had COVID-19.Five stores, including Little Boss, have remained closed because they had not yet"passed the virus test", the government said.
"All the other concerned pet shops on the other hand have been thoroughly disinfected and cleaned and the environmental swabs collected from these shops have all passed the COVID-19 virus test," officials said.The government said on Friday it would compensate pet shops trading in hamsters, offering a one-off payment of up to HK$30,000 .
Researchers in Hong Kong have said they found evidence pet hamsters can spread COVID-19, linking them to human infections in the city as part of a study published in The Lancet medical journal, which has not yet been peer reviewed. Thousands of people offered to adopt unwanted hamsters amid widespread backlash against the government and its COVID-19 advisers, which was dismissed as irrational by authorities.
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