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REEDLEY, Calif. (FOX26) — New details emerge regarding the illegal lab in Reedley as the Fresno County Department of Public Health shared a detailed timeline of the investigation before the information came to light to the public.

Many people have been asking why local officials did not release information sooner about the illegal lab in Reedley.

They explain their hands were tied during a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday.

[RELATED] More federal attention on Illegal lab found in Reedley, following Speaker McCarthy's visit

“As were communicating with state and federal agencies, they’re making it very clear, we cannot speak on this. This is our protocol, this is what they adhered to and they’re not able to speak on an ongoing investigation. They’ve made that clear pretty much since day one," said Joe Prado, with the Fresno County Department of Public Health.

FULL STORY: Secret Reedley Lab: Emails reveal CA Dept. of Public Health told Fresno County officials to be quiet.

FOX26 News learned in emails exchanged between the California Department of Public Health and the County of Fresno, that Fresno officials wanted to release information since late March.

But, they say, they were told to be quiet due to the nature of the investigation.

Instead, CDPH put out the following holding statement for the county to use, saying it was assessing the situation and the investigation was ongoing:

CDPH is working with local, state and federal partners, as well as law enforcement authorities, to assess the situation at the warehouse and the department’s food and drug branch has launched an investigation into the manufacturing practices of the unlicensed company that was doing business from that location. This is an ongoing investigation that will take time to resolve and we are therefore unable to share additional details.

In the email, a county representative responded saying several agencies would be at the lab and would be wearing personal protective equipment and whether it should still run with that statement since members of the public might notice them.

CDPH said yes.

When asked if there was any other information they wanted shared for the evolving issue, CDPH stated, "...it did not want to say anything more publicly due to the active investigation."

Two days later, Fresno County officials revised the statement with input from the City of Reedley and sent it to CDPH for approval:

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is working with the Fresno County Department of Public Health (FCDPH) and the City of Reedley, as well as local, state, and federal partners, and law enforcement authorities to investigate the operations of an unlicensed and unpermitted company that has been doing business out of a warehouse at 850 I Street, Reedley, CA 93654. Based on the investigation thus far, there is no indication that that there is anything hazardous to the general public at this time. In an abundance of caution for CDPH Food and Drug Branch staff and other partners entering the facility, staff have been advised to wear appropriate PPE. The FCDPH and the City of Reedley are committed to protecting the public’s health and will continue to work with our partners to investigate this matter.

CDPH responded, crossing out some words with a recommendation saying, "We suggest you not point to the specific address and not mention PPE or law enforcement at this time, as we believe it could unnecessarily cause concern and questions."

The county says the FBI even requested it not release a lot of details.

Prado says that's when the city and County of Fresno started to focus on what they could do.

[RELATED] Health Department continues to remove biohazards, chemicals from illegal lab in Reedley

This includes requesting the company running the lab, Prestige Biotech, to provide a complete inventory of all materials on-site that posed a public safety risk.

During this entire discovery dating back to October of 2022, Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba says they did everything in their power to keep the public safe.

She brought forward details regarding the company saying it was kicked out of Canada, got kicked out of Texas, and came to California.

She says it got kicked out of Fresno, kicked out of Tulare, went back to Fresno, got kicked out again, and went to Reedley.

“This little David city took down Goliath with a green garden hose," Zieba said.

A Fresno County spokesperson told FOX26 News they raised concerns of needing to say more but it becomes a challenge when working with multiple agencies, as many as 20, at the same time.

It says each agency has its own protocol.

REEDLEY, Calif. (KFSN) -- The fallout continues over an illegal lab uncovered in Reedley, which contained hazardous materials, biological agents, and nearly one-thousand mice.

Local leaders are addressing how a lab like this, could've found its way to Fresno County.

Reedley officials say when they noticed an unpermitted lab in Reedley last December, they immediately contacted state and federal partners.

And they say while the city helped with the investigation, state and federal law loopholes allowed the business to operate.

At the end of 2022, city code enforcement staff noticed an unpermitted business operating at 850 I Street, in Reedley.

City Manager Nicole Zieba says they reached out to the county, as well as state and federal government agencies.

"From December 21st was when our federal partners started to tell us, not to tell the public yet because we didn't know what we had," said Zieba.

Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig says, because the lab is a privately funded business, there were extra steps they had to take to find out more about what was going on inside.

"So initially, when the county, as well as the city of Reedley, became aware of this situation, we began to work through the courts and work through State agencies, so we could gain access to the site," said Magsig.

Through inspection and abatement warrants, they learned the lab was creating illegal covid and pregnancy tests, and testing on rodents.

But both Zieba and Magsig say they quickly confirmed there was no threat to public safety. Still, they are now calling for more regulations to ensure this doesn't happen again.

"The public doesn't need to fear for their safety, but they should have concern for how this lab started in the first place, and the federal and state loopholes that allowed privately funded labs - now these were bad actors but even legal labs - to operate within their communities and really no one knows," said Zieba.

Magsig adds they will work with legislators to create more laws to help address this.

"It appears that there are some loopholes in the law when it relates to privately funded laboratories. And so there wasn't enough oversight for Meditech and some of these other operators that were involved. So we are asking our state partners as well as the Federal Government to get involved to not only look at this site here, but make sure that something like this doesn't happen again," said Magsig.

Officials say they waited to inform the public until they knew what was taking place.

They also knew once everything was out, the company would stop communicating with investigating agencies.

EXPLAINER: What are the steps if a business wanted to open a lab?

Action News reached out to the California Department of Public health about protocols in place when it comes to labs like the illegal Reedley lab.

The state agency responded say it is working with local, state and federal partners as well as law enforcement authorities, to assess the situation at an unlicensed and unpermitted company at a warehouse in Reedley.

The California Department fo Public Health then provided what are the steps if a business wanted to open a lab:

"To receive licensure to operate a clinical laboratory in California, a business must apply through the California Department of Public Health's Laboratory Field Services (LFS) branch in the Department's Center for Laboratory Sciences (CLS). Licensure is available to and required for all clinical and public health laboratories.

In addition to a California state license, a clinical laboratory must hold a federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) certificate. Applications for both the state license and the federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments certificate are submitted to Laboratory Field Services, which is the state agency for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which administers the federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments program.

Note that this requirement applies to clinical and public health laboratories performing diagnostic testing on specimens derived from humans for the purpose of diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of any disease or physiological condition of a human being or the assessment of the health of an individual.

Clinical laboratories are regulated under California law and federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments regulations. Neither Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services nor Laboratory Field Services regulates laboratories performing testing for academic, research, forensic, manufacturing, or veterinary purposes.

State and federal applications for a clinical or public health laboratory license must include:

Once the application has been submitted with the required state fee, the state license application is reviewed by Laboratory Field Services. The federal certificate application is processed by Laboratory Field Services and issued by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, once the federal fee has been paid.

FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he plans to raise concerns over the illegal lab, known as Prestige Biotech, that was found operating out of Reedley with his colleagues on Capitol Hill.

More federal attention on Illegal lab found in Reedley, following House Speaker's visit (KMPH)

“They were doing research that wasn’t allowed. My concern is to get to the bottom of what happened here but also look at where is this happening in other parts of the country as well. I'm gonna take this back to the select committee on China in dealing with it as well, with the FBI,” said McCarthy.

Correspondence in court filings shows a representative for Prestige Biotech provided Fresno County Public Health with an address in China for the lab's president.

But the county says the address could not be found on any maps, prompting Assistant Fresno County Public Health Director Joe Prado to write, "It appears that you are not wanting to provide real information."

As FOX26 News has reported for more than a week, Reedley Fire and Fresno County Public Health believed the lab posed a hazard to the community over possible explosions and exposure to infectious agents and thousands of gallons of biological fluids -- through court filings and supporting documents.

"Here is a lab that is studying, doing things they did not have jurisdiction or policy or rights to, but if it wasn’t for code enforcement or fire we would have never known about it," McCarthy said, speaking about the Reedley Code Enforcement officer who followed up on complaints from people in the community in March of 2023.

McCarthy also pointed out the lab received money from the state.

In April 2019, Universal Medtech, a predecessor to Prestige Biotech, received a $360,000 tax credit from the state as part of a program to encourage companies to move or expand in California.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to delays in inspections.

In October 2022, Fresno County Environmental Health carried out inspections, finding issues with the storage of chemicals and hazardous materials along with other structural issues.

Around the same time, Prestige Biotech moved to the I Street location in Reedley.

The representative for Prestige Biotech told the county it planned to move to Fresno in June 2023.

But now, city leaders say Prestige, and the owners of the property where it plans to move, haven’t provided a list of hazardous materials let alone permits to handle them -- leaving the building in Central Fresno empty for now.

The Globe reported Friday on a COVID lab run by a shady Chinese company operating in Reedley, CA in the central San Joaquin Valley. The lab, which was supposed to be an empty building, was discovered by Reedley city code enforcement officers when they saw a garden hose attached to the building and investigated.

What they found was stunning and extremely concerning: investigators discovered that one rooms of the warehouse was used to produce COVID-19 and pregnancy tests. In other rooms, investigators found blood, tissue and other bodily fluid samples. They also found thousands of vials that contained unlabeled fluids, the MidValley Times reported.

The Globe made public records requests to the City of Reedly and the Fresno County Department of Public Health for information and communications between the all of the state and federal agencies brought in, as well as any documents and materials found at the illegal lab location. The Fresno County DPH responded almost immediately with a bevy of legal documents including the Superior Court Application for Abatement Warrant. But they said since this is an ongoing investigation, there are no additional records available to disclose at this time.

A medical friend who just returned from a meeting shared some information with me about the spread of CCP-sponsored incursions into domestic American society. Colleagues believe that our current government has invited in and is supporting Chinese government-sponsored operations throughout the United States in academia, online data gathering (social media apps), law enforcement, and scientific research. He said what I wrote about in Friday’s article is yet another example of this.

Here are some of the highlights from the FCDPH documents which are embedded below:

Since October 2022, Universal Meditech, Inc. (“UMI”), and Prestige Biotech has been operating an unlicensed and unregulated laboratory within a large warehouse located on the Property. (Id., at ¶ 7.) Prestige Biotech is the successor to UMI, a California corporation, which is now defunct and going through the bankruptcy process. (Id., at ¶ 8.) UMI transferred biological material and laboratory equipment from a previous site located in the City of Fresno. (Ibid.) The warehouse is patently unfit for this purpose.

The City [Fresno] had grave concerns over what appeared to be the laboratory operation on site, storage and use of biological material, and experimentation on laboratory mice. The City contacted Fresno County Public Health to assist in the City’s enforcement efforts because unknown biological material and toxic chemicals were discovered on the Property. (Ibid.) The City also contacted the California Department of Toxic Substance Control (“DTSC”), the California Department of Public Health (“CDPH”), and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (“FBI”). (Id., at ¶ 6.)

CDPH documented embargoed medical devices, e.g. COVID tests and pregnancy tests, believed to be developed on site. Certain rooms of the warehouse were found to contain several vessels of liquid and various apparatus. In open view during this inspection, Fresno County Public Health staff also observed blood, tissue and other bodily fluid samples; serums; and thousands of vials of unlabeled fluids and suspected biological material. (Ibid.) Various laboratory equipment was also found to include a biological safety cabinet and centrifuge. Cold temperature storage units were also observed, which included 2 ultralow temperature freezer units (-80 and -60 degrees C) and 29 refrigerators/freezers (-20 degrees C). (Ibid.) Ultralow temperature freezers raised concerns that infectious agents were stored on site. During this inspection a room was found housing hundreds of laboratory mice. (Ibid.) A person associated with Prestige Biotech and who appeared to be in control of the Property, informed the investigators that these mice were genetically engineered to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus. (Id., at ¶ 15.) The mice held in the warehouse appeared to be in distress and were kept in inadequate conditions in overcrowded cages and there was a lack of food and water for the animals. (Id., at ¶ 19.)

The CDC found potentially infectious agents at the location including both bacterial and viral agents: chlamydia, E. Coli, streptococcus pneumonia, hepatitis B and C, herpes 1 and 5 and rubella. The CDC also found samples of malaria.

A friend did some digging and provided this on Prestige Biotech:

Prestige is accused of failing to comply with orders, such as providing plan for biological abatement and disposal of hazardous materials; failed to provide license or permit that allows for experimentation and other lab activity.

Bizapedia reports:

PRESTIGE BIOTECH INC is a Nevada Domestic Corporation filed on April 3, 2019. The Registered Agent on file for this company is Barry Zhang Cpa & Associates LLC and is located at 3528 Wynn Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89103. The company has 2 contacts on record: Xiuqin Yao from Las Vegas NV and Zhaolin Wang from Las Vegas NV.

The corporation was created April 3, 2019, months ahead of the COVID outbreak in the U.S.

Company Contacts: XIUQIN YAO, Director, at three different Las Vegas addresses ZHAOLIN WANG, Director at one of the same addresses as XIUQIN YAO.

In February 2023, the FDA reported a recall of Universal Meditech’s COVID-19 test kits: I thought Prestige Biotech took over for Universal Meditech, which is now defunct and going through the bankruptcy process. And why is the FDA now doing a recall of a defunct company, and not during COVID?

Universal Meditech Inc. Recalls Skippack Medical Lab COVID-19 Direct Antigen Rapid Tests That Are Not Authorized, Cleared, or Approved by the FDA

The FDA has identified this as a Class I recall, the most serious type of recall. Use of these devices may cause serious injuries or death.

The devices described in this recall notice are the same devices announced in the FDA safety communication Do Not Use Skippack Medical Lab SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 Tests.

The Globe has a few unanswered questions, and a few more after reading the documents and affidavits:

Why was a Chinese company making COVID-19 tests in California?

Where were these tests to be used? California public health agencies? Medical groups and hospitals?

Is the California Department of Public Health involved?

Who authorized this lab?

What does the Newsom administration know about this?

Are there more Labs like this in California or in the U.S.?

Does the current open border policy play a part in operation?

How could the Newsom administration not know about this given how Gov. Newsom so tediously micromanaged California’s COVID policies and even bought Chinese-made masks from BYD: Gov. Gavin Newsom approved spending $1 Billion of taxpayers funds in April 2020 on masks from Chinese company BYD which had no prior history of making personal protective equipment, and yet days after the FDA approval, it secured a $1 billion deal to supply masks to California…

Here are three of the court documents from FCDPH: More to come…

Here is one of the Code Enforcement Officer’s affidavits. Be sure to scroll through the document to the attached exhibits.

REEDLEY, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Fresno County Board of Supervisors has received an update on the future of an illegal bio-lab discovered in Reedley.

Biological agents and nearly 1,000 mice were found at the lab at the end of last year.

Unauthorized biological agents were found on site, including mice, samples of bodily fluid and infectious diseases.

Now that all the biological agents have been destroyed at the property and the existence of the lab has come out to the public, city and county officials say there's been a lot of misinformation about the facility and its impact on the community.

The county department of public health offered a presentation at Tuesday's board meeting, breaking down the timeline of the lab operations and who knew what activities were going on there.

Officials say it was the federal authorities who told local jurisdictions to hold off on notifying the public until they knew what they were dealing with.

They say during the entire process, they made sure there was never any threat to the public safety.

"I am mighty proud of our little city, this was a bad player company, a bad actor company that was kicked out of Canada, they went to Texas, they got kicked out of Texas, they came to California, they went to Fresno, kicked out of Fresno went to Tulare, kicked out of Tulare went back to Fresno, kicked out of Fresno, came to Reedley," said Reedley City Manager, Nicole Zieba.

Tuesday morning, Zieba and Joe Prado from Fresno County Public Health detailed the long history of Prestige Biotech/Universal Meditech in the Central Valley.

It all started back in 2018 in a warehouse near East North and South Orange Avenues in South Fresno.

"When they were in the City of Fresno, they did have mice there, they were doing their operation there as well," said Assistant Director with the Fresno County Department of Public Health, Joe Prado.

In August 2020, the company had a fire at their East North and South Orange location.

Shortly afterward an environmental health inspector visited the business and found the company did not have a hazardous materials business plan for having ethanol, and the permit was then completed in September.

In October 2022, Fresno County Department of Public Health staff received a complaint about chemicals at the Fresno location, but they could not get access.

"This is where we last heard of Universal Meditech in the City of Fresno," said Prado.

Fast forward to December 2022, when a Reedley code enforcement officer found a green garden hose at "I" and 10th street in Reedley.

"Our team with City of Reedley contacted the FBI to really evaluate potential public safety risk," said Prado.

Prado says they found specialty ultra-low temperature lab freezers designed to hold infectious agents at temperatures up to 80 degrees below zero at the Reedley site.

After meetings in January and February and amid a nationwide recall of the company's covid test, officials were finally able to walk through the facility in early March.

That's when they shut it down, issuing an "unsafe to occupy notice."

On March 16th of this year, the court granted an inspection warrant.

"55 gallons container of ethanol in the warehouse, 6 empty containers of liquid nitrogen, these are all items we started to see once we were able to work with city of Reedley get that inspection warrant and be able to walk through there, the live mice were there and we were going through the warehouse there," said Prado.

By April 21st, the county issued this first of three health orders, and Prado says during this time, Prestige Biotech was communicating with them.

Two months later on June 26th, a judge issued the abatement warrant.

A week later after the July 4th holiday, all the biological materials were removed and destroyed by Fresno County and other agencies.

As of Tuesday, the City of Reedley is finishing up the cleanup effort, including the removal of freezers, furniture and other medical equipment.

"My hope is that by the time we enter heavily in fall, it will be another empty warehouse like we thought it was for the last decade," said Zieba.

Zieba says state and local representatives from Senator Caballero, Senator Hurtado, Congressman Costa and Assemblyman Mathis, have all reached out to her about ways to prevent another illegal lab from operating throughout the Central Valley.

She says she believes this should be a bi-partisan issue that brings everyone together to create change.

"I expect that as this issue rises to the surface nationwide, more and more of these are going to be discovered around the country," said Zieba.

After the discovery of the illegal lab operating in Reedley, local officials are now sounding the alarm on state and federal loopholes that allow these types of businesses to operate.

"It was frustrating going through this response, I got to say, because it just didn't seem there was enough -- there wasn't enough impact to hook, to really be able to go after this business enterprise," said Prado.

Zieba says the lab already has some approvals needed to operate on a state level.

"This company despite everything that has happened, despite the fact that we are dismantling their assets, their physical assets in Reedley, they've applied for a state medical waste generator permit and its been granted, and our understanding is the state couldn't deny it," said Zieba.

Fresno County Supervisor Brian Pacheco is also responding to criticism from Fresno City Councilman Garry Bredefeld.

"He stated members of the board of supervisors knew about this facility for months, that's inaccurate. Simply stated, I knew about it three days before his press conference," said Pacheco.

Prado and Zieba are also trying to clarify misinformation surrounding the lab.

"At this time there's no evidence of the business being connected to a foreign government," said Prado.

Zieba says the myths in Reedley are untrue.

"There's a local myth in Reedley -- there's a supermarket that shut down across the street, there's a local myth that it shut down because mice got out and infected the supermarket -- no no no, the roof is collapsing in the supermarket and it shut a year prior to this lab coming to Reedley," said Zieba.

Prado says they will continue working to see what local officials can do to prevent this type of lab from coming back to Fresno county.

"As we go through any next steps, we are going to evaluate our resources, we are gonna evaluate our fee structures with businesses as it comes to hazard mitigation plans, and everything else here that we can at the local level to ensure this doesn't happen here," said Prado.

The Reedley City Council also has a meeting Tuesday evening at 7 pm.

For previous stories on the Reedley lab, click here.