Author(s): Ravi Kant Bhardwaj; Manish Kumar; Deepak Kumar
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Abstract: At the beginning of 2020, world has seen a devastating pandemic which was named as COVID -19. SARSCoV-2 virus was supposed to be responsible for spreading of this infectious disease (cdc. gov). Almost all developed and developing nations on the earth has suffered, both in terms of loss of life as well as economical loss, due to COVID-19. The first outbreak of COVID-19 in India was felt in March 2020 and till date lakhs of humans have lost their life due to this pandemic. The principal mode by which people were infected with SARS-CoV-2 was through exposure to respiratory fluids carrying infectious virus. When an infected person came close to a person, he can transmit the disease to other one. Thus, doctors have advised to use surgical masks, face shields, gloves, shoe covers and personal protective equipment (PPE). These medical care accessories need to replace every day. Thus, these accessories have been disposed of as part of household waste. On many occasions, it has also been discarded by the roadside, behind hospitals, on beaches, in parking lots, in landfills. Infected persons have also used overdoses of some of the medicines which were suggested by doctors to cure COVID-19. In India, it has also been observed that few COVID-19 infected people after death, has been dumped in river (BBC News). As per Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) India, the biomedical waste generation has increased due to this pandemic (Manzoor and Sharma 2019). In the present study, an analysis of biomedical waste generation in India during COVID-19 during 2020-21 has been done and its possible impact on water resources has been discussed.
Year: 2022