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.
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