Recently, parents are getting worried because of the growing mortality rate among child Covid patients and the increasing number of children with severe Covid-19 symptoms. At a press conference hosted by the Deputy Secretary-general and Director of the Culture and Communications Committee Yu-Min Wang today (5/25), the KMT pointed out that although the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had listed symptoms that might indicate the initial phase of severe illness for children, part of the guideline still didn’t meet the parents’ needs. Furthermore, because children can quickly progress through a disease cycle, the government should relieve some restrictions in the guidelines if allowed. Last, the government should provide parents with points of contact so that parents can receive the assistance needed and their children can be carefully tended to when they show severe symptoms.

The KMT states that CDC’s guideline asks parents to either take their children to hospital by themselves or other relatives or call 119 if their children show the eight symptoms listed in the guideline, including having a temperature higher than 41C, showing consistent fatigue, consistent headache, continuously vomiting, convulsion, etc. However, seeing their children suffering from Covid symptoms, most parents can’t really wait until their kids show these symptoms to rush them to hospitals. Therefore, the KMT calls for the CDC to simplify the rules for hospitalization and provide clearer guidelines.

The KMT advocates the following methods to solve this chaos:

1. After considering the medical resources we have, the government should adequately simplify the condition and process for child patients to be admitted to hospitals. Therefore, children infected with Covid-19 can receive proper medical care as early as possible.

2. In addition to increasing beds for child patients, the government should also try to solve the shortage of healthcare workers for children.

3. Raising frontline healthcare workers’ awareness of mild and severe Covid-19 symptoms in children to avoid delayed hospitalization.