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.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
Tainan’s initiative to recruit digital nomads has resulted in several German, US and Vietnamese nationals applying to live and work in the city, the Tainan Research, Development and Evaluation Commission said yesterday. That marked the city as the first in the nation to attract digital nomads, following the launch of the program last month, it said. Although all applicants so far have used work visas or tourism visas instead of the special digital nomad permit from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the city government believes that the latter would be needed eventually, the commission said. The digital nomads recruited by Tainan would work
RSS