original omicron case. omicron is in at least nine city ace cross china, so these winter olympics are going to be taking place as parts of the country are in war-time mode to try and stamp out the virus. but organizers are still betting that they can pull this off successfully by keeping olympic participants completely separate from the rest of the population and under extreme covid rules. now, meanwhile, in hong kong, they are also doubling down on its zero covid strategy. they say they will euthanize some 2,000 small animals and ban imports of small animals. they are asking all pet shops, required, these pet shots selling hamsters, to hand over the hamsters for them to be killed. these are extreme measures in response to what? they're in response to a worker at a shop testing positive for the delta variant and around a dozen hamsters testing positive as well. this is also important to mention here. health authorities say that the risk of transmission from animals to humans is low.