The Upper West Regional Manager of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Mr. Emmanuel Volsuuri, has stated that the collection of medical waste generated from the ongoing nationwide 2nd shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine Covid-19 vaccination exercise will promote public health.
The exercise which is aimed at providing medical waste management services for all vaccination centres across the nation is a partnership between Zoomlion Medical Waste Team, Public Health Department of Ministry of Health, School of Hygiene.
The exercise which begun at the Wa Municipal Health Directorate on Tuesday 31st August 2021 will be carried out in 27 districts in the Upper West region.
According to him, the hazardous medical wastes generated from this exercise are to be collected and properly dispose of; hence Zoomlion as a giant waste management company is always ready to dispose of the waste through its autoclave method.
“The aim of the exercise is to properly manage all vaccination waste that is generated from the current ongoing exercise of the second dose of Astrazeneca vaccine to those who earlier took the first dose. To achieve this, we have developed specialised bins and liners to the vaccination centres for temporary storage which by the day we have special vans which will go round to collect all the waste generated from this exercise”.
Mr. Volsuuri further indicated that without the collection of the waste generated from the vaccination centres, public health can be risky.
“We are prepared as I’m speaking to you now our officers in the surrounding districts are working”.
He added that the autoclave method will be implemented to ensure the waste has been disposed of successfully.
“Autoclave method in disposing of the medical waste is been practised in Accra so at the end of the exercise all the waste will be sent back to Accra to be totally disposed of by the method”. He concluded.
He said the exercise is to properly manage all vaccination wastes that are generated from the ongoing 2nd shot of Astrazeneca vaccination for those who earlier took the first shot.
The Medical Waste Manager of Zoomlion Ghana Limited Ing Senam Tengey in his address said the Zoomlion Medical Waste team is ensuring that each vaccination centre has special bins liners for the temporal storage of all waste that is generated within each centre across the country.
“The treatment procedure we undertake is that the waste is taken through stem stabilisation and stretching before they are disposed of. This process totally kills all the microorganisms that might be present in the waste and reduce the quality of the waste. When this happens, the benefit that comes with it is that it prevents and reduces potential spread of diseases such as HIV, Hypertension, etc from needle break injury in case the waste is not properly managed.”
He then commended the major stakeholders, the School of Hygiene, the Ministry of Health and the Department of Health for their cooperation and support in this exercise to help promote environmental health and safety.
