More details emerge from the poisoning scandal at the Korça kindergarten, the number of affected children may be higher

New details have come to light about the serious incident at one of the kindergartens in the city of Korça, where several children were taken urgently to hospital because of food poisoning. Although six affected children were initially reported, parents’ testimonies suggest the number of little ones who showed symptoms could go up to 20.

According to the testimony given to the media by Koço Xexo, the father of one of the hospitalised children, the little ones had eaten bread with egg for breakfast at the kindergarten, while for lunch they were served pilaf with pieces of chicken and yoghurt. He says his son suffered frequent vomiting, loss of strength and pallor, which forced his urgent transfer to Korça hospital, where tests confirmed poisoning from food products.

During his statement to the media, Koço Xexo said:

“I don’t know the exact figure; approximately I think there may be around 20 children. From what I heard from all the parents we spoke with, some of us were in a condition where we received treatment in hospital, but all of them showed symptoms, some milder, some more severe, but almost all showed symptoms. Some even showed them the following day.

The doctor, at least for my son, did full tests because it was a bit worrying at first and it came out that he had poisoning, she told me, from food products, she suspected that. Meanwhile the tests also showed that he had high white blood cells, which indicated that there was more difficulty in the organism from this, from the poisoning.

I don’t believe it could be something intentional, or it could be something from carelessness or from the control of the raw products that are taken in. The thing is that they are very small children and such situations burden their organism a lot, and to be honest in the first moments we were a bit frightened about everything that happened.”

Meanwhile, as regards official responsibility, the kindergarten director with initials M.K. has been placed under investigation by the authorities for failure to fulfil her duty and food control. Parents have denounced that while the group’s teacher appeared concerned and went to the hospital, the director did not answer their phone calls.