Chen Chang, Chen Jiaao, Fang Ran, Ye Fan, Yang Zhenglun, Wang Zhen, Shi Feng, Tan Wenfeng
State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Soil Health and Green Remediation, 430070 Hubei, Wuhan, China.
College of Resource and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070 Hubei, Wuhan, China.
Resour Conserv Recycl. 2021 Jul;170:105600. doi: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105600. Epub 2021 Mar 31.
The global pandemic caused by the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) has led to a dramatic increase in medical waste worldwide. This tremendous increase in medical waste is an important transmission medium for the virus and thus poses new and serious challenges to urban medical waste management. This study investigates the response of medical waste management to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent changes in Wuhan City based on the most detailed data available, including waste generation, storage, transportation, and disposal. The results show that despite a 5-fold increase in the demand for daily medical waste disposal in the peak period, the quick responses in the storage, transportation, and disposal sectors during the pandemic ensured that all medical waste was disposed of within 24 hours of generation. Furthermore, this paper discusses medical waste management during future emergencies in Wuhan. The ability of the medical waste management system in Wuhan to successfully cope with the rapid increase in medical waste caused by major public health emergencies has important implications for other cities suffering from the pandemic and demonstrates the need to establish resilient medical emergency systems in urban areas.
2019冠状病毒（COVID-19）引发的全球大流行导致全球医疗废物急剧增加。医疗废物的这种大幅增长是病毒的重要传播媒介，因此给城市医疗废物管理带来了新的严峻挑战。本研究基于可得的最详细数据，包括废物产生、储存、运输和处置情况，调查了武汉市医疗废物管理对COVID-19大流行的应对措施及后续变化。结果表明，尽管高峰期每日医疗废物处置需求增长了5倍，但大流行期间储存、运输和处置部门的快速反应确保了所有医疗废物在产生后24小时内得到处置。此外，本文还讨论了武汉未来紧急情况下的医疗废物管理。武汉市医疗废物管理系统成功应对重大突发公共卫生事件导致的医疗废物快速增长的能力，对其他受疫情影响的城市具有重要意义，并表明有必要在城市地区建立有韧性的医疗应急系统。
