Wearing protective suits, latex gloves, face masks and goggles, medical waste handlers in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, the epicenter of COVID-19, are one of the main groups of people who risk getting infected. With the huge number of confirmed cases in Wuhan, the constantly increasing amount of infectious medical waste and various contaminated domestic waste also pose a potential source of infection in the city. However, this material is being handled by a significantly reduced labor force. A worker takes out medical waste bags from the bin and waits for the transfer vehicle to collect the waste in Zhongfa Xincheng branch of Wuhan Tongji Hospital. /Global Times
妥善处理医疗废物——抗疫背后的另一场“硬仗”
李师傅是武汉同济医院中法新城院区一名后勤人员。 从大年初一开始，他就一直忙于医院的消杀以及医疗废物的处理工作。 A member of the support staff surnamed Li was one of the medical waste handlers who worked in the Zhongfa Xincheng branch of Wuhan Tongji Hospital. He has been working day and night since the Spring Festival holiday to help with the disinfection work and medical waste disposal. The sudden increase in medical waste and the shortage in the labor force put huge pressure to the hospital as well as medical waste handlers. 同济中法新城医院的医疗废物原本放在医院地下室的暂存间，使用红外线和药水进行消毒。 随着新冠肺炎疫情的发生，产生的医疗废物是以前的近十倍，而且都是感染性的医疗废物。 为了解决感染性医疗废物可能造成的安全隐患，医院在医院停车场临时开辟了一块露天暂存处。所有感染性医疗废物都会被运送到暂存处，每两个小时消杀一次，然后送走。 Medical waste is temporarily placed in an open-air parking lot in Zhongfa Xincheng branch of Wuhan Tongji Hospital to prevent infection. /Global Times The medical waste in the hospital was originally placed in a temporary storage room in the basement and was sterilized with infrared rays and specialized liquids. However, the COVID-19 outbreak has caused the amount of medical waste generated to increase nearly tenfold, and it is all infectious. To minimize the risk of infection, the hospital designated an open-air space in the parking lot to be a temporary area for stocking the infectious medical waste. The handlers disinfected the waste here every two hours before transferring it away from the hospital. A worker collects waste bags from a dustbin and assembles them in the temporary medical waste storage point in the Zhongfa Xincheng branch of Wuhan Tongji Hospital. /Global Times
"As the traditional Chinese saying goes, 'For the rise and fall of a nation, everyone has his obligation.' Now I understand its meaning," said Li, "If nobody wants to come, who will protect the hospital, doctors and patients? If nobody stands out, the society will be over. So we need to be grateful to these doctors, nurses and support workers." Workers transport medical waste from the Zhongfa Xincheng branch of Wuhan Tongji Hospital. /Global Times 为了缓解疫情期间武汉市医疗废物的收运处置压力，还有来自南京、襄阳等城市的医疗废物处置团队驰援武汉。 To relieve Wuhan's overloaded medical waste, transfer teams from other cities were also deployed in Wuhan. Four professional medical waste handlers and two medical waste transfer vehicles from Nanjing City, east China's Jiangsu Province, arrived during the Spring Festival holiday. They have worked day and night since arriving and each vehicle has handled 184 barrels of waste. Another team from Xiangyang City, central China's Hubei Province, also helped a lot with the transfer of infectious medical waste. A total of 92 handlers and 35 transfer vehicles were sent to the city to accelerate the speed of medical waste transfer.
生态环境部：医疗废物处理处置平稳有序
为做好疫情防控工作，生态环境部此前已下发通知，要求各地加强监管，确保疫情医疗废物得到及时有效收集、转运、处理、处置。 China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) previously urged local authorities to supervise and manage the collection, transportation, storage and disposal of medical waste produced from the novel coronavirus outbreak, to avoid cross-contamination and cut off the contagion. 根据生态环境部2月26日的通报，目前全国疫情医疗废物处理处置平稳有序。 截至2月24日，全国医疗废物处置能力为5830.8吨/天，较1月20日前增加928吨/天。 湖北省及武汉市处置能力大幅提高，湖北省医疗废物处置能力达到648.6吨/天，武汉市医疗废物处置能力达到每天262.8吨/天。 Data issued by MEE on Wednesday showed that China's medical waste disposal capacity has increased by 928 tons from before January 20, bringing it up to 5830.8 tons per day. The medical waste disposal capacity in Hubei Province stands at 648.6 tons per day, while the disposal capacity in Wuhan City is 262.8 tons.