Responding to a case of a child having suffocated to death, allegedly from wearing a mask that was made wet by his tears at an infant center in New Taipei City, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said that the mask mandate for infant centers was removed along with schools on March 6 last year and has not been reintroduced.
Posting two photographs of an infant, including one with him on a hospital bed and intubated, news anchor Lin Yen-ju (林彥汝) on Tuesday night wrote on Facebook page that a nearly one-year-old child of her friend’s sister had suffocated due to negligence at a public infant center, and that the child’s parents wished to publicize the case as a warning.
Lin shared her friend’s story in her post, which said that the mother received a call from the infant center informing her that the child was receiving emergency treatment in an intensive care unit after he suddenly stopped breathing and did not have a heartbeat. The mother had signed a do-not-resuscitate order.
Photo: screen grab from the Facebook page of Lin Yen-ru
A physician confirmed that the child did not have a heart abnormality.
A review of the infant center’s surveillance camera footage showed a carer putting a mask on the child’s face, Lin said.
The child pulled it off and the carer put it back on, causing the boy to start crying, the friend said.
It was likely that the child’s tears had saturated the mask and caused him to suffocate, as he struggled and passed out, but the carer thought that he had fallen asleep and did not attend to him, the friend said.
CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), the centers’ spokesperson, yesterday said that the mask mandate for infant centers was removed along with schools on March 6 last year, and that wearing a mask is currently only required at hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and senior welfare facilities.
The New Taipei City Social Welfare Department said that “as the weather turned cold and infants’ respiratory infections have increased, entering a peak period, the infant center had informed parents to make their child wear a mask to prevent cross contamination,” Lo said, adding that the city is looking into the case.
The department yesterday said that it had promptly received a report about the incident from the center, and that it was deeply regretful and pained to learn about it, and that it is offering its full assistance to the family.
The cause of the accident would be clarified by hospital and judicial authorities, and police have obtained a copy of the surveillance footage, it said, adding that the center has been asked to keep the video for 30 days while awaiting the results of the investigation.
Pediatricians yesterday said that infants should not be forced to wear a mask and that cross contamination can be prevented by keeping them at a safe distance away from children with symptoms.
REPORT: Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining loitering munitions matching the AeroVironment Switchblade 300 or the Anduril Altius-600, ‘Foreign Policy’ said Taiwan is seeking US-made kamikaze drones in an apparent concession to pressure from Washington to focus on asymmetric capabilities to defeat or deter a Chinese attack, Foreign Policy said in a report on Wednesday. Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining AeroVironment Switchblade loitering munitions or other devices with similar capabilities, it said, citing four sources familiar with the matter commenting on condition of anonymity. The Switchblade 300 is a tube-launched drone designed for attacking ground troops, while its larger sibling, the Switchblade 600, could be used to destroy tanks and entrenched troops. Ukraine has utilized both systems extensively in its fight against
Police officers yesterday morning apprehended the prime suspect of a triple homicide case, after raiding the suspect’s hideout in Taichung. They transported the suspect to New Taipei City for questioning and recorded his statement last night. The suspect, identified as a 24-year-old man surnamed Chang (張), is believed to have used his hands to strangle his wife, surnamed Chen (陳), 29, along with his three-year-old son from a previous marriage and his wife’s mother, 69. The three dead bodies were wrapped in blankets when they were discovered inside their apartment in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) on Saturday. Chang was holding a
Hungarian Member of Parliament Tompos Marton said he considers Taiwan to be a better alternative to China as a strategic partner. Marton, who is the vice president of the opposition Momentum Party, made the remarks in an interview with the Central News Agency on Sunday. He draped a Republic of China flag across his shoulders to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to the capital city, Budapest, on Thursday last week, and openly voiced support for Taiwan on social media. He said in the interview that he wanted to remind the world that there were alternatives to China, and that “Taiwan has
A female physician at New Taipei City’s Shuang Ho Hospital was bullied and made to work for 32 consecutive hours by a senior colleague while pregnant before later having a miscarriage, an internal investigation found, the hospital said on Monday. The perpetrator has been removed from his post, the hospital said. The attending physician in the hospital’s Medical Imaging Department, identified by the pseudonym Y, earlier on Monday told reporters that she had been bullied by a male senior colleague who arranged shifts in her department. In January, shortly after she became pregnant, Y asked the department director if she could avoid overnight