Correspondent
PASIGHAT, 16 Jun: The Upper Siang women & child development (WCD) deputy director has submitted a report to the WCD director regarding the death of a malnourished child from Covid-19 on 29 May.
The one-year-and-four-months-old child from Adi Pasi village in Mariyang had been admitted to the dedicated Covid hospital in Pasighat. She died of Covid complications in the hospital in the early morning of 29 May.
Upper Siang WCD Deputy Director Arti Tayeng conducted the inquiry with the child development project officer of the Mariyang ICDS project, and submitted the report on 6 June.
The WCD officials went through the official records and registers of food supply under the supplementary nutrition programme and found that the mother during her gestation period had been registered and given food supplement by the department.
The officials further reported that the mother of the deceased child was sick after giving birth and she could not feed sufficient breast milk to her baby.
“In fact, the baby was born premature and underwent a series of medications for various ailments before being admitted to the Covid hospital in Pasighat. The ICDS officials and workers have no fault in the supply of nutrients to the mother and child duo,” said Tayeng, further clarifying that her department covers only supplementary nutrition and not total nutrition.
The doctors who treated the Covid infected girl child had reported that she was suffering from acute malnutrition and moderate anaemia, and finally died of severe pneumonia caused by Covid-19 infection.
Later, the state’s WCD director had ordered an inquiry into the infant’s death.
