A 9-year-old boy was among the 144 COVID-19 deaths reported in Taiwan Thursday, bringing the number of child fatalities from the disease to 13, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.
The boy began vomiting on May 28, and the next day he became incoherent and then fell unconscious, which prompted his family to call for an ambulance, said Lo Yi-chun (???), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division.
By the time the child got to hospital, however, he had no vital signs and was pronounced dead, Lo said.
A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test showed that the child had COVID-19, and his death was attributed to the disease, along with heart and lung failure, Lo said.
With his death, the number of children in Taiwan 12 years old and younger who have died of COVID-19 rose to 13, while the number of severe infections recorded in that age group reached 30, according to the CECC.
Encephalitis was a factor in the death of five of those children, while two had developed pneumonia, and one had septic shock, the CECC said. Another one of the child deaths was attributed to complications resulting from a brain tumor, the CECC said. In four of the 13 fatal cases, the child was found unresponsive at home, it said.
Meanwhile, four of the 10 surviving children who had developed encephalitis as a result of COVID-19 have been discharged from hospital, while the other six are improving, Lo said, adding that none of them are now on oxygen support.
To date, Taiwan has recorded 2,521 deaths linked to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
Of the 2,093,540 domestic cases recorded in Taiwan this year, 1,970 have been classified as severe infections and 4,158 as moderate, accounting for 0.09 percent and 0.20 percent of the total, respectively, according to CECC data as of June 1.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel