Disposal and management techniques of biomedical waste: perspective and challenges faced during the covid pandemic in India

Biomedical waste (BMW) is the waste which is generated during Diagnosis, treatment, immunization and biomedical research, according to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2018), approximately 85% biomedical waste is non-hazardous and 15% is hazardous waste to humans, animals and environment (1). Every year, it is estimated that at least 5•2 million people, including 4 million children, die each year because of diseases related to unmanaged medical waste (2). India is one of the largest population countries; the biomedical waste management is one of the toughest challenge and COVID19 pandemic increases the problem even more. The number of persons infected with the COVID 19 is continuously raising throughout the world, to diagnosis and management of the infection, usage of the personal protective equipments like PPE kits, masks, gloves, shoe covers, face shields are increased in the hospitals and discarding of waste generated in home quarantines was also increased. This mini- review, we highlighted the challenges to disposal of biomedical waste during COVID 19 pandemic in India.