Hamsters have spread COVID-19 to humans, and it caused an outbreak.
The outbreak happened in a Hong Kong pet shop, where 50 people were infected.
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Has it been studied?
After the outbreak, scientists began a study. It has not yet been peer reviewed. You can read more about it here.
A professor and virologist at the University of Hong Kong, Leo Poon and his colleagues analyzed the hamsters in the pet shop.
They found that all of the animals had been infected with COVID-19, the Delta variant. The researchers later found that a worker in the pet shop had caught COVID-19. The worker had a virus sequence that aligned with that of the hamsters.
Research suggests that hamster to human transmission happens pretty easily.
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