Emergency disposal and management of medical waste duringthe COVID-19 outbreak in China

Abstract

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 began to explode on a large scale around the world, with medical and health institutions around the world are facing great pressure. During this period, medical institutions that treat patients with COVID-19 will also generate a large amount of medical waste. If not handled properly, infectious viruses will enter the environment and cause secondary pollution and new epidemic. Wuhan was the first city to have a large-scale outbreak during the outbreak. In the early stage of the outbreak, the relevant competent departments of medical and health institutions and medical waste disposal agencies in China quickly and timely issued a series of technical guidelines and Management measures to control secondary pollution of medical waste during COVID-19. This article analysed the medical waste disposal capacity in Wuhan city, Hubei Province and China at 2020, which also introduce the medical waste treatment measures taken in China during the outbreak, hoping to provide technical reference for other countries.