While running experiments on COVID strains, a female researcher got bitten by a lab mouse. She later tested positive for the virus the following Thursday (Dec. 9). The lab contained not only samples of the alpha variant, but other variants as well. The scientist stepped down from her position in early December, but the reason for her resignation is still being investigated.
In an emergency press conference held the evening of Thursday, the head of Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), established that one of the female laboratory researchers in the city of Taipei tested positive for COVID.
The woman, in her twenties, was identified by Chen as case No. 16,816, worked at the Academia Sinica's Genomics Research Center.
She was "exposed to the pathogen" in the middle of November when she was employed at the Academia Sinica's Institute of Biomedical Sciences (IBMS), a P3 (Biosafety Level-3) facility situated in Nangang District of Taipei, stated Chen....