An Osaka Prefectural Government employee was allegedly slapped with a pay cut for allegedly submitting her subordinate's saliva to make up for an insufficient sample from a child who was supposed to take a coronaviruses antigen test at a child consultation center.
On June 23, the prefectural government punished the 47-year-old employee, a member of the prefecture's welfare department with the rank of unit chief, with a 10% pay cut for six months.
The child had been temporarily placed in the care of a prefectural child consultation center in the city of Tondabayashi and was due to be transferred to a private welfare facility. Their saliva was taken for an antigen test on December 15, 2021 because they showed suspected COVID- 19 symptoms. The amount of the child's saliva was insufficient, so the employee apparently instructed a subordinate to offer their saliva instead.
After being deemed to have tested negative for the virus, the child was transferred to the welfare facility. There aren't any infections said to have been confirmed.
The issue came to light after the subordinate consulted another employee in February 2022.
The disciplined employee said she had felt pressed because the deadline for submitting a sample was looming, and said I cannot apologize enough as it was a malignant act that damaged trust, and it betrayed the facility and the child. The prefectural government also warned about the subordinates who submitted the saliva.
An official at the welfare department said: We take this issue seriously and will take thorough recurrence prevention measures, such as having tests done at medical facilities when possible.