The plight of conservancy workers who handle household (domestic) biomedical waste such as mask and gloves during tje COVID-19 outbreak came to the fore when the son of a conservancy worker in Coimbatore tested positive for coronavirus on Monday.
The Health Department officials suspect that the five-year-old boy contracted the disease through his mother, who was engaged in conservancy work in a quarantine facility near Madukkarai. At this facility, people who returned from Delhi after attending a religious conference were initially kept in isolation. Some of them later tested positive.
The boy did not have direct exposure to anyone who tested positive for COVID-19 or visited any place affected by the SARS-COV-2 virus, said a health official. The swab samples of the boy’s father and mother, who did not have any symptom of the disease, have been collected now, he added.
The boy’s case also highlights the need for scientific collection and disposal of household biomedical waste like masks and gloves used and discarded by people who are in home quarantine and in isolation facilities, other than hospitals.
Biomedical waste generated from COVID-19 wards of hospitals are collected separately by the staff of common biomedical waste treatment facilities in triple layered bags and disposed of scientifically.
However, the same system is not in place for the disposal of domestic biomedical waste generated from those in quarantine and other isolation facilities, sources here said.
On Monday, A.V. Venkatachalam, chairman, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), directed 11 common biomedical waste treatment facilities in the State to collect household biomedical waste such as masks and gloves, collected and stored by local bodies, as and when informed by them, and dispose the same immediately upon receipt at their facilities. The TNPCB has also informed all local bodies about the new arrangement.