Health & Environment

The government warned people who joined in fundraising activities to help foreign domestic workers pay a government fine are committing a crime. Seventeen foreign domestic helpers were fined HK$5,000 each last weekend for violating the social distancing rule that limits public gatherings to two people, according to the government press release. In response, netizens set up an online fundraising platform for the domestic workers. “We will ask for legal advice to stop such fundraising activities,” said Law Chi-kwong, the secretary for Labour and Welfare in a radio program yesterday. “Fundraising is encouraging the domestic workers to gather and not be afraid of being fined, which is maliciously damaging our anti-epidemic works.” The fine is more than the HK$4,630 minimum monthly wage for domestic workers. “There will be rigorous enforcement action against foreign domestic workers who violate the two-person social gathering limit this weekend,” said Law. Helping Helpers, the fund organiser, said they suspended the fundraising. The received donations will be returned to the donors through the fundraising platform, and they will not pay the fines for the 17 domestic workers, according to the updates on the webpage. Chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said in a press conference that employers should ask their domestic helpers to stay home during weekends. She said the enforcement officers would show “no mercy” to anyone breaching the social distancing rule. The government announced the tightening of social distancing measures on Feb. 8 under the fifth wave of pandemic in Hong Kong. Public gatherings of more than two people from two different families are banned. A maximum penalty for breaching the social-distancing rule will be charged a fine of $25,000 and up to six months prison. Law said employers can pay the domestic helpers to stay home on public holidays if the helpers are willing, …

Hong Kong authorities will cull some 2,000 small rodents after hamsters in a pet shop tested preliminary positive for the Delta variant of COVID-19, the first to be discovered in a natural environment. Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Leung Siu-fai announced in a press conference on Tuesday that pet shops selling hamsters were required to temporarily suspend their businesses and handover the rodents to the department for euthanasia after testing, regardless of the result. He also “strongly advised” pet owners who had bought a hamster in Hong Kong from Dec. 22 to turn them over. The announcement was made amid concerns over animal to human transmission, after 11 hamsters at Little Boss pet shop in Causeway Bay, tested preliminary positive for the virus. Environmental samples obtained from its Tai Po warehouse, which housed the imported hamsters from the Netherlands, also tested positive. “Although there was no evidence internationally to prove animals can spread COVID-19 to humans, but for the sake of prudence, we will implement preventive measures on every possible route of transmission,” Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee said.  The virus was detected after a 23-year-old pet shop worker and a 67-year-old woman who visited the venue on Jan. 8 were infected. University of Hong Kong microbiologist and government advisor Yuen Kwok-yung told the reporters in the evening that it was essential to make such a decision and praised the judgment as “decisive and wise.” “I use this species in the laboratory for experiments every day, which are very sensitive towards the virus and are easily infected,” he said. He also said the hamsters will spread out a lot of viruses in the first 10 days, which means a long time for transmission.  Yeung Lin-hing, who owns one of the 34 affected pet stores, said he …