Zoomlion Medical Waste to arrest public health problems associated with COVID-19 2nd jab vaccination

Mr. Emmanuel Volsuuri, the Upper West Regional General Manager of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, has announced the battle readiness of his outfit to ensure that, the collection of medical waste generated from the ongoing nationwide second phase of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the Covid-19 vaccination exercise to enhance public health promotion among residentsof the region.

He is of the view that, the hazardous medical waste generated as a result of the vaccination must be collected to protect residents from contracting various forms of hazardous infections and that is the more reason why Zoomlion Ghana Limited is leaving no stone unturned in spearheading the collection and treatment of these waste through the autoclave approach.

Mr. Volsuuri said, “our aim of this exercise is to ensure proper management of all vaccination waste that is generated from the current ongoing exercise of the second phase of Astrazeneca vaccine to those who took the first jab”, adding that in order to achieve this, “we have deployed specialised bins and bin liners to the vaccination centres for temporary storage which by end of the day we have specialized vans that will go round to collect all the waste generated from this exercise for proper treatment and disposal”.

According to him, if the waste generated from the vaccination centres are not collected, it can lead to public health risks to the people.

He said “We are more than prepared because we have deployed our officers and collection equipment throughout the Municipal and Districts (MDAs) and work has commenced simultaneously”.

Mr. Volsuuri added that; the autoclave method will be implemented to ensure the waste is threated and dispose of successfully.

“The autoclave methodology in treating and disposing of the medical waste has been operated in Accra over the years so at the end of the exercise all kinds of waste will be collected separately and the medical waste specifically sent to Accra to be totally disposed of by the method” while the other wastes are treated in separate plants. He said.

Mr. Volsuuri, commended all stakeholders including the regional, municipal and district public and environmental health directorates and the Ministry of Health for their cooperation and support in this exercise to help promote environmental health and safety.

The Medical Waste Manager of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Ing. Senam Tengey in his address said that the exercise forms the collaboration between Zoomlion Ghana Limited, School of Hygiene and the Public Health Department of the Ministry of Health.

He assured that, the Zoomlion Medical Waste Team is ensuring that each vaccination centre has special bin liners for temporal storage of all waste that is generated within each centre across the country.

“The treatment procedure we undertake is that the waste is taking through steam 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”.

The seven day exercise which begun at the Wa Municipal Health Directorate on Tuesday 31st August 2021 will be carried out in 27 centers with all MDAs in the Upper West Region.