Published 19:08 IST, March 17th 2020
China disposes 159,000 tonnes of medical waste amid coronavirus outbreak
Amid coronavirus outbreak, China has reportedly disposed approximately 159,000 tonnes of medical waste since late January, according to the MEE.
Amid coronavirus outbreak, China has reportedly disposed approximately 159,000 tonnes of medical waste since late January, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE). The ministry in a reported statement said that China’s medical waste disposal capacity has reached 6,058 tonnes per day. Furthermore, the statement said that the disposal capacity of Hubei Province also rose from 180 tonnes per day before the outbreak to 667.4 tonnes.
According to international media reports, the environmental authorities also monitored the country’s 17,949 drinking water sources and did not find any impact from the epidemic on the quality of the sources. The officials also found an improvement in air quality for 337 cities with the share of good quality days at 85.7 per cent from January to March. China is the epicentre of coronavirus, however, the government reportedly declared that the peak of the virus has now passed.
Chinese banks, schools reopen
Currently, China has almost 80,881 confirmed coronavirus cases and the deadly virus has also claimed more than 3,200 lives. Amid the outbreak, China’s banks are also aiming to start business again and in a bid to lure new customers, the banks across the country have also started to offer masks. The authorities have also reopened several schools in the northwestern provinces of Xinjiang and Qinghai and in southwest China’s Guizhou.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said on March 16 that the best way to combat the unprecedented outbreak of deadly coronavirus for all countries is to ramp up their testing programs. The WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a conference in Geneva that the ‘simple message’ he has for all countries is ‘test, test, test’. He further added that the countries will remain unsuccessful to tackle the pandemic if they fail to test all suspected cases and remain ‘blindfolded’.
Updated 18:59 IST, March 17th 2020