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A Chinese city on March 29 ordered the killing of all indoor pets in one neighbourhood belonging to Covid-19 patients, but subsequently backtracked on the order a day later.

Pets belonging to Covid-19 patients

State-run China News Service reported that the local authorities in Anci district of Langfang city, in northern China, ordered the mass culling of indoor animals belonging to patients who are Covid-19 positive.

However, the culling was stopped at 5pm on the day itself, it was also reported.

A staff member for the Langfang Center for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly said work stopped at 5pm.

But another supposedly official notice put up on Weibo by the local government said this Covid-19 preventive measure was announced, but it was eventually not executed.

This was after hearing from residents, and looking into the matter, that the authorities recognised that this measure was not really appropriate.

The notice apologised for any inconvenience caused, and said other preventive measures will be looked into.

It is not known how many pets, or if any, were put down.

Reactions in China

Hebei province, where Langfang is located, recorded hundreds of new daily Covid-19 cases in the recent weeks, China's CDC reported.

China has been aggressively pursuing a zero-Covid strategy since the start of the pandemic.

Chinese internet users responded with outrage to the news.

"Is there any use to apologise? If you have greater power, you may even catch and kill humans."

"Please treat all lives kindly."

"Whoever proposed this measure please come out and get beaten."

China's zero-Covid approach

Half of Shanghai — which has a population of about 26 million — went into lockdown in the last week of March 2022.

Thousands of new cases were recorded there.

The other half is due to lock down on Friday, April 1.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said pets can get Covid-19 from humans but that the risk of pets spreading the disease to people was "low".

Top photo via Unsplash

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