The Safe Haven program for abandoned infants in Xiamen has been halted because of capacity issues since early April, Strait Herald reported on April 18.

A baby hatch is closed at a welfare center in Xiamen.

The baby hatch in front of the municipal welfare center was closed on Thursday, with only a janitor standing guard, who told the newspaper that the program was suspended amid a barrage of abandoned newborns. Last month, Guangzhou city also put the brakes on their program.

Three months into the program, the center has taken in a few more than 120 abandoned infants. In 2013, there were only 55 abandoned babies, about one every week, statistics showed.

The number of new abandoned babies could be as high as seven on a single day, far more than what an undermanned center can afford, the janitor said.

The Xiamen Civil Bureau confirmed the closure later Thursday, saying the overflow of babies has forced the program to be put on hold.

There are 800 beds and 280 nurses at the welfare center, but only about 60 are qualified to take care of abandoned babies, the newspaper found.

The number of babies soared in Xiamen after Guangzhou halted their program in March because of overburdening, the newspaper said. Now, the southern Fujian city faces a similar predicament.

“Xiamen is unable to take care of so many babies coming out of nowhere, especially when many are severely disabled,” said an employee from the civil bureau.

If the center keeps accepting babies, it will not be able to accommodate those who moved in before, he added.

But the welfare center denied the suspension of the program to the newspaper, saying they closed the baby hatch only to better screen the babies.

The center received two or three babies on average every day, according to Wang Quandi, director of the center. He also refuted that the increase is related to Guangzhou’s closure of the program.

The situation exposes flaws in governments’ social assistance mechanism, which need to be ironed out for the sake of the abandoned babies, the newspaper said.