(Fighting new crown pneumonia) How does China surge in medical waste to win the environmental defense?

China News Agency, Beijing, March 31 (Reporter Ruan Yulin) After the outbreak, the amount of medical waste and domestic waste at designated medical institutions in Wuhan, Hubei and other places has surged, and how the capacity of medical waste disposal can be rapidly strengthened in a short period of time. Safety line of defense for medical waste disposal in China.

"When the epidemic broke out, Wuhan only had a capacity of 50 tons of medical waste per day, but the leader of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment required that the capacity of medical waste disposal must reach the capacity of 30,000 people per day." Wuhan Medical Waste Disposal Commander Gong Yuan, the leader of the center's coordination and liaison group, said that the medical waste generated in Wuhan at that time was "out of stock" almost every day.

After the outbreak, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China closely monitored the operation of medical waste disposal facilities across the country. On January 21, a notice was issued to fully deploy medical waste disposal. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment requires environmental protection work related to epidemic prevention and control. All medical institutions and facilities in the country must have 100% full coverage of environmental supervision and services, and timely and effective collection, transfer, treatment and disposal of medical waste and medical sewage must be fully implemented.

Zhai Qing, deputy minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, held 15 one-on-one video conferences with 13 cities in Hubei Province to guide and help Hubei Province and Wuhan City to rapidly improve their medical waste disposal capabilities. Coordinate multiple forces, organize 46 mobile disposal equipment, 65 transfer vehicles, more than 20,000 transfer boxes, and multiple batches of protective materials to help Hubei Province and Wuhan City.

"Later, we added 42 new medical waste disposal equipment," said Gong Yuan, equivalent to the combined processing capacity of seven small and medium-sized cities. There are nearly a hundred medical waste transfer vehicles in Wuhan. More than 260 volunteers support medical waste disposal in Wuhan.

Zhao Qunying, director of the Emergency Management Office of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, recently told reporters that the amount of medical waste in Hubei and Wuhan has increased rapidly after the epidemic, especially in Wuhan, from about 40 tons per day to 240 tons per day. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment assisted Hubei Province and Wuhan City to take measures to quickly improve disposal capacity. The disposal capacity of medical waste in Hubei Province increased by 2.7 times, and that of Wuhan City increased by 4.3 times, ensuring the timely disposal of medical waste.

From January 20th to March 14th, a total of 159,000 tons of medical waste was disposed of throughout the country, and the medical waste involved in the epidemic situation was basically "Nissan, Nissan."

Zhao Qunying said that after the epidemic, the amount of medical waste has increased rapidly, and the shortcomings of medical waste disposal capacity in some areas are very prominent. Especially in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, the daily medical waste disposal capacity has increased from 40 tons to more than 200 tons. It reached 240 tons at the highest.

"Although the average operating load rate of medical waste nationwide is around 50%, there is a situation of uneven distribution," said Zhao Qunying. Some local medical waste disposal facilities continued to operate at overload, reaching 22 at most, and 28 Near full load operation. There are also few municipalities that do not have medical waste disposal facilities, and medical waste is relied on for the coordinated disposal of surrounding cities.

At present, there are 487 centralized medical waste disposal units in 358 cities in 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities across the country. The average daily actual disposal capacity is 6022 tons, which is an increase in emergency daily disposal capacity of 1119.2 tons from the daily disposal capacity of 4902.8 tons before January 20. twenty three%.

Zhao Qunying said that the national medical waste disposal capacity has increased by more than 1,100 tons compared with the initial stage of the epidemic. Waste incineration facilities can also co-dispose medical waste. This increased disposal capacity mainly comes from the co-processing of mobile equipment and hazardous waste incineration facilities. increase.

"These are okay in an emergency," Zhao Qunying said. In the future, standardized medical waste disposal facilities will be built, and shortcomings in the disposal of medical waste and hazardous waste will be required.

In order to further strengthen the comprehensive treatment of wastes in medical institutions, the National Health and Health Committee, in conjunction with the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, formulated the "Work Plan for Comprehensive Treatment of Wastes in Medical Institutions" to solve the problem of insufficient facilities for centralized treatment of medical waste. The plan requires that by the end of 2020, every city at or above the prefecture level should have at least one centralized medical waste disposal facility that meets operational requirements. By the end of June 2022, each county (city) will have a medical waste collection, transfer, and disposal system.

On March 30, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment's Epidemic Response Leading Group Meeting was held. The meeting emphasized that the current environmental protection work related to epidemic prevention and control has been promoted in an orderly manner and achieved periodic results, but the situation of epidemic prevention and control is still complicated and severe. The ecological environment system should continue to do a good job in environmental protection related to epidemic prevention and control. (Finish)