MARGAO
With a daily spike in Covid cases in the commercial capital, the Margao Municipal Council faces a daunting task of collecting bio-medical waste of patients preferring home isolation in the city.
The reason is not far too seek. No doubt, the MMC has put in place a team of workers to collect the Covid bio-medical waste from the homes of patients, but a full-proof mechanism of handling such waste is yet to fall in place.
The reasons may be varied, including the fact that the MMC does not immediately receive the list of asymptomatic patients preferring home isolation, but an unprecedented situation on the collection of bio-medical waste is now staring at the civic body.
Several instances have come to light wherein the MMC team has not reached the doorsteps of the patients under home isolation to collect the biomedical waste.
In the absence of any team collecting the bio-medical waste from the homes of the asymptomatic patients, the waste finds its way in the general waste, posing a risk to the door-to-door waste collectors, a situation that may ground the waste collection system.
Civic officials in the know told The Goan that the district authorities headed by the South Goa District Collector Ajit Roy should immediately step in before the situation goes out of control.
“If the civic body does not receive the names of the Covid patients preferring home isolation on the very same day, then the Collector should immediately put in place a system. The civic body should immediately get the list of patients going for home isolation for better management of the bio-medical waste,” the civic official pointed out.
Sources in the civic body informed that MMC had slowed down the exercise of collecting the Covid waste from the homes of the patients after it encountered the problem of disposal of the waste.
It may be recalled that around a week ago, an MMC pick-up van laden with Covid bio-medical waste was refused entry into the Hospicio hospital. The waste was later transported to the Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim, for disposal, but the van returned with the waste after the breakdown of the GMC incinerator.
“The MMC had slowed down the work of collection of the Covid waste due to the problem of disposal. We have already put in place a team of workers to collect the waste from the homes of patients,” an MMC official said. The civic body will have to now go for another team of workers given the number of patients preferring home isolation, the official added.
Sources in the MMC said the civic body had embarked on the exercise to collect the bio-medical waste with a two-fold objective -- to ensure that the general garbage collectors do not get infected with the virus while collecting dry and wet waste and to ensure safe disposal of the waste.
Meanwhile, GMC Dean, Dr Shivanand Bandekar, has said that the incinerator at the GMC has been repaired and has started functioning.
