Nine Months Of The COVID-19 Pandemic, Mask Waste In Jakarta Reaches 859 Kilograms

Waste masks (DOK. DKI Environmental Service)

JAKARTA - It has been nine months since the COVID-19 pandemic has been taking place in Indonesia. During that time, masks have become an everyday item used by the community to prevent transmission of COVID-19.

Especially in Jakarta, the collection of used mask waste during the COVID-19 pandemic reached around 859 kilograms. This was revealed by the Head of the DKI Environmental Service, Andono Warih.

"During this pandemic period, 859.71 kilograms of used masks have been collected from households," said Andono in a written statement, Thursday, November 12.

Andono said, during the pandemic, the number of disposable masks, such as medical masks, was the highest. This is evidenced by the large number of used masks that are wasted along with household waste.

In order to break the chain of transmission of COVID-19, the Environmental Service has carried out the sorting and collection of infectious waste from households, such as used masks to be handled properly.

"After sorting out the mask waste, the Environmental Service worked with the B3 waste processor to destroy it," said Andono.

This destruction is carried out so that the disposable mask waste is no longer used by residents. There is concern that this could lead to new diseases, from viruses and bacteria that are left behind.

For information, today DKI Jakarta has an additional 831 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 115,174 cases. There are 6,571 active cases to date.

Meanwhile, there was an increase in 1,072 cases recovered, bringing the total to 106,189 cases. Then, the positive cases who died increased by 11 people and the total became 2,414.