Central Pollution Control Board, CPCB has issued fresh guidelines on disposal of COVID-19 waste. It has directed that masks and gloves used by everyone, whether infected or not, should be cut and kept in paper bags for minimum 72 hours before disposing off them.

The CPCB also directed commercial establishments shopping malls, institutions and offices to follow the same procedure with discarded protective personal equipment,PPE from general public.It asked to ensure that general solid waste and biomedical waste generated from quarantine centres and quarantine homes is not mixed and they should be collected separately.

It added that leftover food, empty juice bottles or tetra packs, empty water bottles, packaging material, and any other items, generated or handled by COVID-19 patient should be collected along with other general solid waste in bags securely tied for handing over to waste collectors.

The CPCB also recommended use of bio-degradable or non-disposable cutlery to minimize waste generation.

It directed that isolation wards, including temporary healthcare facilities like rail coaches, must keep separate colour coded bins to maintain segregation of waste and use a dedicated bin to collect and store COVID-19 waste and keep it separately.
From COVID-19 isolation wards, used PPEs such as goggles, face-shield, splash proof apron, plastic coveralls, hazmat suits, nitrile gloves must be collected into a red bag.

Meanwhile, DRDO has established a COVID-19 testing facility at the Leh based laboratory Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR) to enhance the rate of testing to identify the Corona cases in the Union Territory of Ladakh. The testing facility will also help in keeping close watch of the infected persons. The facility meets the safety standards and guidelines of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The centre was inaugurated by Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, Shri RK Mathur on 22nd July 2020.

The testing facility at DIHAR is capable of screening 50 samples per day. The facility can also be utilized for training manpower for COVID testing and will be of great help to address future bio-threats and carrying out R&D activities pertinent to agro-animals diseases.

In his address, LG Shri RK Mathur lauded the efforts of DRDO in fighting Covid 19 and thanked Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence R&D & Chairman DRDO for making this facility available at DIHAR. He expressed hope that the facility will help in the treatment of infected persons.

The Lieutenant Governor also inspected the testing facility. He was briefed about the bio-safety aspect of the testing facility and precautionary measures to minimize cross-contamination and safety of researcher, health professionals and the environment.

Dr OP Chaurasia Director DIHAR, Brig JB Singh Commandant, Dr Padma Gurmet Director NRISR, Leh, Dr Mutup Dorjey CMO along with his team of doctors from SNM Hospital, Leh and other senior army officials and DRDO scientists were present on the occasion.

DIHAR is one of the life sciences laboratories of DRDO working on cold arid agro-animal technologies. The laboratory is screening and identifying the medicinal and aromatic plants to exploit them for use for defense purposes and also on greenhouse technologies for high altitude and cold desert areas.