Medical waste piles up as MCDS short of hands

nNEWDELHI: As more and more Covid-19 patients are being put in home isolation, daily collection of biomedical waste from their houses is proving to be a big challenge for the already shortstaffed municipalities.

In many neighbourhoods where Covid-19 positive patients are in home isolation, daily biomedical waste is not happening, residents say. In other areas, waste is being collected every three to four days.

Delhi has at present 16,240 people in home isolation, of the total 26,270 active cases. The city on Tuesday recorded 2,199 cases, taking the total to 87,360. Sixtytwo deaths were reported on Tuesday, taking the total count to 2,742.

Surya Pratap Singh, a resident of north Delhi’s Rohini who tested positive eight days ago, and is in home isolation till July 1, said waste is being picked up from his house every alternate day.

“First, I tested positive, then my wife and mother was infected. All of us are in home isolation. The daily waste generation is so much that it needs to be collected every day. There have been days when we keep the waste bag outside our house for collection in the given time but it just stays there. We have to put it back inside because neighbours start complaining,” Singh said.

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) guidelines for the management of Covid-19 biomedical waste says refuse from patients’ houses must be collected daily, in colour-coded and sealed bags, to prevent any spread of infection. Household biomedical waste has to be put in yellow bags.

Municipalities said that with an “exponential” increase in the number of home isolation cases and with limited staff and resources, it is becoming difficult for sanitation workers to cover all the houses of infected people in their areas.

Jai Prakash, North Delhi mayor, admitted the municipalities were not being able to collect garbage every day. He, however, assured that the north corporation plans to rope in more people in the coming weeks.

Workers are likely to be outsourced, though no plan has been finalised yet.

“The generation of biomedical has increased exponentially. We are trying to get more people ,” Jai Prakash said.

The MCD’S control room help lines are 155304, 18002008701,1800118700, 1266.