{"id":449397,"date":"2021-05-11T19:19:21","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T19:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/?p=449397"},"modified":"2021-05-12T14:57:18","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T14:57:18","slug":"covid-19-in-moldova-what-happens-to-medical-waste-during-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/covid-19-in-moldova-what-happens-to-medical-waste-during-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 in Moldova: What happens to medical waste during the pandemic?"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Moldova is going through its second pandemic year. Starting today, certain groups of people started to be immunized in the third stage of vaccination, as the Ministry of Health Labour and Social Protection<\/strong> (MHLSP) announced<\/a>. “Following our discussions, the need for gradual and organized launch of new <\/em>vaccination stage was expressed, according to the National Immunization Plan against COVID-19.” <\/em>To date, 252 949<\/strong> confirmed cases of COVID-19 were recorded in Moldova. Also, a total of 192 845<\/strong> vaccine jabs were administered.<\/p>\n

Beside the official statistics, there are figures kept into oblivion, intentionally or not, simply because they are not monitored by the authorities. Such figures include the process of COVID-19 pandemic waste management, which, as it seems, is implemented with a lot of malfunctions. While handling of healthcare waste in the country is still emerging, both healthcare workers and common citizens are not fully aware of the danger they expose themselves and the environment to when throwing away bio-medical waste in the general waste bin, on the street or, sometimes, in the sewerage system (!).<\/p>\n

The most dangerous part of medical waste is infectious waste generated by households and medical institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic, including potentially contaminated materials such as masks, gloves, tissues, disposable clothes or used and expired medicines, as the 2020 UN Environment Programme Report<\/strong> showed<\/a>. Such infectious waste requires special sorting, storage, transport, treatment and disposal processes. “Although most governments have made some efforts to improve the situation, they are inadequate to manage even the healthcare waste that is generated in normal times,”<\/em> the report states. It’s the case with the Republic of Moldova as well.<\/p>\n

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An investigation<\/a> published by “CU SENS” media institution displayed the reality of Moldova’s healthcare waste management during the COVID-19 pandemic: the dangerous garbage gets burned on hospitals’ territory or it is placed in the general waste bins<\/span>, despite the fact that this is strictly forbidden, and while hospitals own special dumpsters for bio-medical waste. When the management of the hospitals was notified about the violations, they denied them, saying that such cases of inappropriate waste management would be unique. Some of them interpreted the journalists’ checks and questions as provocations.<\/p>\n

According to Moldova’s sanitary regulations on healthcare waste management, such waste has to be treated in autoclaves. Still, even when hospitals have their own autoclaves, they seem to not use them regularly. Moreover, the rules regarding disposal, storage and transportation of medical waste were observed as being totally ignored in the monitored healthcare institutions, that meaning an even higher risk of infection for people who get in contact with the inappropriately managed waste.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0National Agency of Public Health<\/strong> (NAPH) representatives stated that whereas there is no official statistics regarding healthcare waste management,\u00a0 the situation is still monitored by the institution.<\/span> The data regarding the companies in charge of healthcare waste treatment is also very fragmented. The management of such a company declared<\/a> that only a small volume of bio-medical waste is transported to them for treatment. The rest is placed in the general waste bins, as a cheaper alternative for hospitals.<\/p>\n