Taiwan on Covid-19 alert after infected mouse bites lab worker
- Woman in her 20s is Taiwan’s first local Covid-19 case since November 5
- Authorities confirm she was bitten by an infected laboratory mouse, but say further investigation is needed to see if that was the source of transmission
The worker, who had not travelled broad recently and had received two doses of the Moderna vaccine, was likely to have been infected with the Delta variant of Sars-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.
Another senior virus official at the briefing confirmed local media reports that the worker had been bitten by a laboratory mouse infected with Covid-19, but said further investigation was needed to determine whether the bite had been the source of the transmission.
The lab case threatens to undo Taiwan’s hard-won success in stamping out Covid-19 outbreaks, and underscores the difficulty of eliminating the pathogen, a goal some places – including mainland China and Hong Kong – are still aiming for.
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Health authorities have identified 94 people who came into contact with the lab worker since she was infected – mainly colleagues and close friends – and placed them in quarantine.
Eighty of them have since tested negative, and she resigned from her job earlier this month.