Academia Sinica President James C. Liao apologized for a recent incident, in which a researcher contracted COVID-19 while working with infected lab mice in a high-security laboratory. Academia Sinica is Taiwan’s premier research institution.
Last Thursday, health authorities confirmed that a former lab assistant at Academia Sinica was infected with COVID-19. That made her Taiwan’s first locally transmitted COVID case in over a month.
The woman worked with lab mice infected with COVID-19 Alpha and Delta variants. She was still undergoing training when she was infected.
On Monday, James Liao presented preliminary findings of an Academia Sinica internal investigation to the legislature. Liao says out of the three people entering the laboratory to work on mice that day, only one followed proper disinfection procedures.
The report identified five problem areas, which led to the woman’s infection. They included not properly reporting an accident and conducting work on mice away from the designated space. The other three were not following established disinfection procedures, insufficient training for new employees, and lack of supervision from more experienced personnel.
Taiwan’s Health Minister Chen Shih-chung says Academia Sinica staff at all levels could be held responsible for the incident.