Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Kumar said that the bio-medical waste generated in the houses of the Covid-19 patients in home isolation should be disposed off scientifically.
All GPs in the district were issued a circular in this regard.
About 80 per cent of Covid-19 patients in the district are in home isolation. The waste generated from such houses should be handled with utmost care to ensure that Covid-19 does not spread, he said.
The CEO directed the GPs to hand over black and yellow plastic covers for those in home isolation. The yellow cover is for dumping used gloves, masks, tissue paper, cotton and other medical waste while the black cover is for normal waste. "Those who collect waste from the doorstep should sprinkle disinfectant spray (1 per cent sodium hypochlorite) on both black and yellow covers before collecting them from the houses," he said.
The collected biomedical waste from the yellow cover should be sent to the nearest Primary Health Centre to be collected by Ramky agency which is entrusted with the task of disposing medical waste scientifically in Dakshina Kannada district, the CEO explained in the circular. It is the responsibility of the GPs to ensure that the biomedical waste is sent to the PHCs for disposal.
Waste collectors should also take all precautionary and safety measures by wearing masks, gloves, head caps, faceshields, boots, PPE kits while collecting the medical bio-waste from the houses. The vehicle used for transporting medical bio-waste should be sprinkled with disinfectant spray. The primary contacts and other family members of the Covid-19-infected should hand over masks for disposal after storing it in a paper for 72 hours, the ZP CEO said.