Covid Hospital Waste Poses Health Hazard Globally; WHO
by Naba Batool
SHARES
According to a report issued by WHO all this has led to a drastic increase in medical waste and has caused a serious multiplication in the numbers.
Medical researchers have claimed that the virus can survive on surfaces and thus exposes all the involved medical health personnel to a number of health complications such as needle stick injuries and disease-causing germs.
The #COVID19 pandemic has generated extra tonnes of waste & exposed cracks in waste management, everywhere.
Waste must be reduced & managed safely, for the health of both people & the environment https://t.co/JsYeqvl7G6 pic.twitter.com/UfI0GRjBD1
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) February 1, 2022
Those areas which are in close proximity to landfills that are being poorly managed are on high-risk alert because of the low-quality services that are in practice.
The report estimates that an expected total waste of 87,000 tonnes of PPE (personal protective equipment) that is equal in weight to several hundred blue whales has been ordered via a UN portal till November 2020. And a huge portion of it is expected to end up as waste.
WHO also warned in the report that 140 million test kits that have been used along the journey can generate a potential of 2,600 tonnes of plastic waste. This waste that mostly consists of plastic and other hazardous chemicals has the potential to fill one-third of an Olympic stadium.
This WHO report successfully highlighted that countries lack a proper channel through which they are going to eradicate this issue that can culminate into something larger and worse.
