In last three months Goa has generated a waste of 54.14 tonnes of medical waste out of which around 21.6 was from the COVID Care Centres and COVID hospitals; while the rest was from the hospitals in CCP jurisdiction and the Goa Medical College (other departments).
While GMC is collecting waste from all major hospitals, the issue now is that the panchayats or local bodies are not trained enough to collect the waste scientifically from COVID care Centres or from the persons in home quarantine.
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One panchayat sarpanch spoke to Herald stating that they have no clue how to collect the waste from home quarantined asymptomatic people.
“The problem is that the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) tells us when an asymptomatic person is home quarantined but we have no proper infrastructure to deal with COVID. We need proper Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs), trained staff and vehicles and sanitising facilities so that the waste is collected and sent to treatment plant at GMC scientifically,” said the sarpanch on condition of anonymity.
The Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP) has been scientifically handling the waste and many panchayats have approached CCP to help them out, said Panjim Mayor Uday Madkaikar.
He adds that the workers carry out the collection with proper PPE kits and a dedicated vehicle, which is sanitized.
“We collect waste from home quarantined persons once or twice a week,” Madkaikar said.
He said the CCP is collecting waste from the Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Stadium as well as the GMC wards.
