REEDLEY, CA (KMJ) – A timeline was presented on Tuesday at the Fresno County Board of Supervisors meeting about an illegal biological Covid lab that was discovered in Reedley.
Reedley’s City Manager, Nicole Zieba and the Fresno County Health Department shared information about the discovery timeline, who knew, and what they found going on inside the building where 1000 mice and various biohazards were found.
Investigators say the warehouse at 850 I Street in Reedley was operating a biological lab from October 2022 until spring 2023. Local and Federal law enforcement spend months investigating after initially a hose was found coming out of the back of the warehouse.
Zieba said code enforcement became suspicious in late December,
The feds, state and the county went in January to investigate.
Local media first started reporting on the story the end of July.
Supervisor Brian Pacheco clapped back at Fresno City Councilman Garry Bredefeld, who held a news conference Monday, July 31, 2023, calling for more transparency with the public, and blasting the county supervisors as well as Dr. Rais Vohra, the interim health officer for the County of Fresno, and District Manager Joe Prado.
Supervisor Pacheco said he only learned of the lab just days before Bredefeld’s press conference.
“It seems to me that the responsible person would have got the facts before holding a press conference with inaccurate information to scare the public and for more self-promotion,” said Supervisor Pacheco.
The County of Fresno says the biohazard material was contained and disposed of properly.
Supervisor Steve Brandau complimented City Manager Nicole Zieba, and the Fresno County Dept. of Health for their work.
Zieba says it was December when federal partners started telling city officials to wait to release information.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig said they would make the information public and available online.
Listen to the report by KMJ’s Liz Kern.
