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Hong Kong leader defends hamster cull

The city on Saturday (January 22) closed down a second apartment block in an attempt to halt an outbreak of the highly-infectious Omicron variant in Kwai Chung, north of the city's Kowloon peninsula.

Lam said that a second Kwai Chung apartment block, home to more than 2,000 people, would be shut down for five days and overall cases had also spread due to an outbreak in pet hamsters.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam urged people to avoid gatherings ahead of next week's Lunar New Year.

She also defended the killing of hamsters.

Officials ordered the culling of about 2,000 from dozens of pet shops after tracing a coronavirus outbreak to a worker at a shop, where 11 hamsters later tested positive for COVID-19.

Thousands of people have offered to adopt unwanted hamsters amid a public outcry against the government and its pandemic advisers.