Mayoral candidate Josh Kraft called on Mayor Michelle Wu to take “emergency measures” after a 4-year-old boy stepped on a discarded needle in South Boston, in a statement Monday.

“Mass and Cass is a public health emergency, and the large number of discarded needles are a part of this emergency,” said Kraft. “The city disperses hundreds of thousands of needles every year, which they are happy to promote. It is also their responsibility to pick up discarded needles promptly to keep Bostonians safe – especially our children. Today, I am calling upon Mayor Wu to commit to taking emergency measures to pick up all discarded needles throughout Boston.”

On July 11, a 4-year-old boy was jabbed by a used needle walking barefoot in a grassy area near the corner of Columbia Road and Mercer Street, requiring extensive blood testing for infectious diseases and weeks of medications to prevent possible HIV infection, his mother told the Herald.

Since the incident, the South Boston mom has called for the city to take the needle issue “more seriously,” with steps like more needle disposal boxes in parks and more extensive clean-up sweeps.

Kraft argued Monday the problems of Mass and Cass have “spread to other parts of the city.”

“This is something that no mother, or any 4 year old child, should ever have to endure,” Kraft said. “As a result of Mayor Wu’s failures to make progress at Mass and Cass, many people have been harmed including an innocent child.”

The candidate and son of Patriot’s owner Robert Kraft said he would “bring a new and different approach and urgency to this problem” but did not state further steps.

Wu also responded to the South Boston incident at an unrelated press event Monday, saying “as a mom, it’s just not okay.”

“It’s not okay to even have that as a possibility in the back of your mind, that’s something that you have to worry about,” Wu said.

The mayor referenced daily sweeps by the Mobile Sharps Team seeking to remove needles.

“Those sweeps happen in public parks,” Wu said. “Those sweeps happen in key areas of the city. This was in a part of patchy grass that was not quite in the park. So it just is a signal to us that we have to be more aware of areas outside where we were thinking as well in the immediate short term.”

Wu also said the presence of needles “to begin with is something that we need to tackle.”

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“We do not accept that those who are trafficking drugs or dealing are going to use the city of Boston as a place to prey on people,” said Wu. “So we’re going to continue to end outdoor congregate substance use, looking at every possible way to ramp up the treatment and resources while also making sure that enforcement is at the right level in the right places.”

Nearly 50 individual reports of needles were submitted via 311 reports on Monday as of 7 p.m., with as many as 13 syringes reported collected at individual sites. The reports spread throughout the city, including Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Dorchester, Mission Hill and Hyde Park. All of the reports over an hour old were closed, with some reporting recovered needles and others reporting none found.