According to health officials, Coronavirus might have been released from Taiwan’s top-security laboratory following the bite of a rodent infected with it by a worker.
This woman was in her 20s and confirmed the local transmission case on Thursday. She had tested positive earlier in the day.
Although she is not certain that she was infected by the virus, health officials say that she does not have any history of contact with other cases or travel. The lab is now being considered the most likely source.
This case confirms the hypothesis that Covid originated from Wuhan’s laboratory, and may be what sparked the Pandemic.
Coronavirus may have leaked from Taiwan’s top-security biolab at Academia Sinica (pictured) after a female lab worker was twice bitten by an infected rat
Although Heath officials have not confirmed that she was infected at Level 3, they claim the woman has never traveled with or had contact with anyone else.
Chen Shih-chung, head of Taiwan’s disease control institute, revealed the case late Thursday, saying the woman is a worker at the bio-lab located within Academia Sinica, the island’s top research institute.
Chen stated that the woman had been infected by the virus during mid-November when she was both bitten twice by an infected mouse.
She first noticed symptoms on November 23, when she had a mild cough. The cough grew more intensely on December 6, prompting her to undergo a PCR test.
Test results were returned on December 9th and showed that the Delta version of Covid was present in her body.
Chen stated that Chen also informed us that Chen double-vaccinated her against Covid and gave two Moderna jabs.
Now, she is isolated. Taiwanese authorities traced 94 close friends and colleagues.
The animals were also placed in isolation, and instructed to undergo PCR testing. 80 have been negative so far.
Chen attempted to calm the public saying that there are very low chances of the leak spreading due to the many negative tests.
Chen was asked if the bite might have been responsible for the outbreak.
“Their investigation revealed that this was the case, however, further investigations are needed to confirm that.
However, the possibility of such a leaked water supply adds legitimacy to the hypothesis that Covid was triggered by a similar water leak at Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The infection, if confirmed by China, would give credence to China’s long-held belief that Covid was caused by a leaked from Wuhan’s lab.
While the Wuhan lab is at a Level 4 level, which is higher than that of the Taiwan laboratory, there are still instances when workers were bitten or harmed by bats.
China insists for years that such a leak is impossible. However, video from earlier in the year shows that laboratory workers were sometimes bitten by bats during fieldwork.
A leak from the Wuhan lab is less-likely than a leak from Academia Sinica because the former has the highest level of security, Level 4, while the latter is ranked one stage lower, at Level 3.
Concerns about Taiwan Lab make it more difficult to rule out the possibility for a leak in Wuhan. China has made efforts to prevent this in the past.
Although initially dismissive of the idea that there was a lab leak, US intelligence has given some credibility to it. President Biden stated that the possibility is currently being investigated.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has also refused to rule out the lab leak theory, insisting it remains ‘on the table’.
European leaders also refuse to dismiss the idea, and call for an open investigation into Wuhan’s virus origins.
China has not yet indicated any interest in such an investigation. However, one WHO team was allowed limited access to the WHO stage-managed probe that ended with a poorly-reviewed report. Critics claimed that it did nothing more than propagandize Beijing.
China is unable to confirm the source of the virus. However, Beijing’s mandarins are open to the possibility that the virus may have been imported or traveled to China.
Government officials have alternately blamed the US, Europe, and India as potential sources – all geopolitical rivals to China.
Experts agree, however that China is almost certain to have been the cause of the epidemic and the disease likely circulated for several weeks or possibly months prior to being first detected in Wuhan in Dec 2019.