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.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we