Aceh Health Office Ensures Medical Waste For COVID-19 Patients Is Destroyed With Incinerator

Illustration - Officers move bags containing medical waste (ANTARA)

ACEH - The Aceh Health Service (Dinkes) ensured that medical waste handling COVID-19 patients in the province was not disposed of in a Final Disposal Site (TPA) but instead received special treatment through destruction using an incinerator.

"We make sure that the COVID-19 medical waste or waste is not disposed of in landfills around Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar, but is destroyed with an incinerator," said Head of Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) of the Aceh Health Service, Iman Cheapman in Banda Aceh, Antara. , Friday, November 26 .

In addition to bringing disease, the COVID-19 pandemic has also added medical waste such as personal protective equipment (PPE), hazmat clothes, face shields, used medical masks and so on.

Therefore, said Iman, medical waste at the provincial level is destroyed in two places, namely the medical waste disposal site (incinerator) owned by the Zainoel Abidin Hospital in Banda Aceh and owned by the Aceh Environment and Forestry Service (DLHK).

All COVID-19 medical waste from the Zainoel Abidin Hospital in Banda Aceh, the COVID-19 control posts, the Aceh Regional Health Laboratory (Labkesda), the Aceh Research and Development Center and several others, were all destroyed with an incinerator.

"Like the posts, for example, after transferring COVID-19 patients, including the one at the Banda Aceh Convention Hall, we take everything to the Zainoel Abidin Hospital, so we don't just throw anything into the TPA," he said.

Moreover, based on a decree from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) RI said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, incinerators were free to use for the destruction of medical waste, so as not to pollute the environment.

"So the DLHK's medical waste destruction machine in Blang Bintang Aceh Besar has also started to be used, we can direct medical waste there," said Iman.

Likewise, the capital city of Banda Aceh, continued Iman, the city government does not dispose of medical waste to the landfill, but uses the services of a third party to destroy all medical waste from both the Puskesmas and COVID-19 handling posts.

“So medical waste from the Puskesmas is collected to the city health office and then handed over to a third party for destruction. On average they carry out the extermination to Bandung (West Java), not here," he said.