Medical waste including used face masks, gloves, and PPEs were found strewn along EDSA White Plains on Monday morning. The trash slowed down traffic for more than 2 hours until Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) personnel cleaned it up.
According to MMDA EDSA Traffic Management Chief Bong Nebrija, the incident was not caught on CCTV. But the possibility of it being intentional will not overlook. The MMDA recommended to the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to file charges against anyone behind this.
The agency has also asked the police for help to trace where the medical waste came from and who is responsible for its improper discarding.
The Department of Health (DOH) has reiterated the importance of proper disposal of medical waste since it is not only an issue of the environment but also of health.
DOH Spokesperson Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire warned that improper disposal of medical waste can contribute to the transmission of the virus.
“We know that the SARS-COV-2 virus, dumidikit sya sa fomites. So itong mga mask at kung anu-anong healthcare waste na nakakalat sa daan, ‘pag pinulot yan ng ating garbage collectors and they’re not wearing their gloves, maaari silang mahawa ‘pag hinawakan nila yung mukha nila. (it sticks on fomites. So these masks and other scattered healthcare waste, when picked up by garbage collectors and they’re not wearing their gloves, they can get infected when they touch their faces).”
She recommended that the local government units (LGUs) and health care facilities must discuss the schedule on disposing medical waste.
The DOH also imparted the ways on properly disposing medical waste, putting them in a separate plastic bag and labelled as such so that garbage collectors will know how it must be handled. – Report from Mark Fetalco
