In view of the outbreak of pandemic of COVID 19, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has issued Guidelines for Handling, Treatment and Disposal of Waste Generated during Treatment / Diagnosis / Quarantine of COVID-19 Patients on 19th April, 2020.
It is for first time that CPCB has introduced guidelines for disposal of biomedical waste generated at homes. However, the said guidelines are only for the COVID – 19 and for the homes/home cares where COIVD-19 patients are quarantine. The guidelines are as follows:
“(c) Responsibilities of persons operating Quarantine Camps/Homes or Home-Care facilities*
Less quantity of biomedical waste is expected from quarantine Camps / Quarantine Home/ Homecare facilities. However, the persons responsible for operating quarantine camps/centers/home-care for suspected COVID-19 persons need to follow the below mentioned steps to ensure safe handling and disposal of waste;
– General solid waste (household waste) generated from quarantine centers or camps should be handed over to waste collector identified by Urban Local Bodies or as per the prevailing local method of disposing general solid waste.
Biomedical waste if any generated from quarantine centers/camps should be collected separately in yellow colored bags (suitable for biomedical waste collection) provided by ULBs. These bags can be placed in separate and dedicated dust-bins of appropriate size.
– Persons operating Quarantine camps/centers should call the CBWTF operator to collect biomedical waste as and when it gets generated. Contact details of CBWTFs would be available with Local Authorities.
– Persons taking care of quarantine home / Home-care should deposit biomedical waste if any generated from suspected or recovered COVID-19 patients, by following any of the following methods as may be arranged by ULBs;
– Hand over the yellow bags containing biomedical waste to authorized waste collectors at door steps engaged by local bodies; or
– Deposit biomedical waste in yellow bags at designated deposition Centers established by ULBs. The bag again be stored in yellow bag or container; or
– Handover the biomedical waste to waste collector engaged by CBWTF operator at the doorstep.
– Persons operating Quarantine camps/centers or Quarantine-homes/Home-care should report to ULBs in case of any difficulty in getting the services for disposal of solid waste or biomedical waste.
Clarifications:
– Quarantine Camps / Quarantine-Home are the places where suspected people or the contacts of suspected / confirmed cases who have been directed by authorized hospitals or local authorities to stay at home for at least 14 days or more for observation for any symptom of COVID-19, if any.
– Homecare – Home care facility is a home where care is to be provided to a COVID-19 positive patient at home.
– Biomedical waste at Quarantine Camps / Home-care may also comprise of used syringes, date expired or discarded medicines, used masks/gloves and in case of patients with other chronic diseases may also include drain bags, urine bags, body fluid or blood soaked tissues/cotton, empty ampules etc.
– Biomedical waste generated from Quarantine Camps / Quarantine-Home / Home-care would be treated as ‘domestic hazardous waste’ as defined under Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, and shall be disposed as per provisions under Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016 and these guidelines.
– General waste from Quarantine Camps / Quarantine-Home / Home-care shall be disposed as solid waste as per provisions under SWM Rules, 2016
– Used masks and gloves generated form home quarantine or other households should be kept in paper bag for a minimum of 72 hours prior to disposal of the same as general waste. It is advisable to cut the masks prior to disposal to prevent reuse.”
During this COVID-19 era, the Government of India has also introduced Telemedicine Practice Guidelines on 25th March, 2020 thereby allowing the registered Medical Practitioners to use any telemedicine tool suitable for carrying out technology-based patient consultation e.g. telephone, video, devices connected over LAN, WAN, Internet, mobile or landline phones, Chat Platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger etc., or Mobile App or internet based digital platforms for telemedicine or data transmission systems like Skype/ email/ fax etc.
Thus, as per Telemedicine law the patients are taking their treatment at home just the COVID patients who are quarantine at home. However, the government has not formulated any guidelines or rules for disposal of biomedical waste being generated by the non COVID patients at home/home cares.
It is important, especially, in today’s time when the country is under lockdown situation that the Government formulates the guidelines for the disposal of biomedical waste generated at homes whether the patient is suffering from COVID or not.
