Complaints as medical waste piles up outside Mexico hospital

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Residents of Mexico’s Gulf coast state of Veracruz have complained after photos showed mountains of bagged hospital waste piling up in a patio outside a government hospital.

10-foot (3-meter) tall garb pile outside olfo Ruiz Cortines hospital has apparently been growing for a couple of weeks, according to hospital employees and residents of state capital, also kwn as Veracruz.

hospital treats patients with COVID-19, raising fears of a spre of infection. However, Mexican Social Security Institute, which runs hospital, said in a statement Wednesday that waste was t infectious or biological.

It said hospital was trying to hire a contractor to remove garb.

Improper disposal of medical waste has become an increasing problem in Mexico amid pandemic.

In May, authorities found 3.5 tons of hospital waste dumped in woods on outskirts of Mexico City and 6,000 cubic yards (meters) of medical waste piled ceiling-high at a clandestine warehouse in Puebla state, leaking out of over-crammed trailers and buildings.

Teetering piles of coffins, meanwhile, have piled up outside Mexico City’s overworked crematoriums.

In town of Nicolás Romero, in a wooded area on outskirts of Mexico City, someone h been dumping tons of medical waste on a hillside starting sometime around mid-April. By time inspectors came to clean up area between May 4 and 11, y found 3.5 tons of stuff, including tissue and partly incinerated human tissue scattered around area.

Specialized waste incinerators are alrey over-taxed by flood of disposed protective equipment and infectious tissue being generated amid pandemic.