Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi & 19 Others at Higher Risk of Covid-19 Infection Due to Biomedical Waste

A study by the International Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS) says as many as 23 states are at risk of increased Covid-19 infections due to biomedical waste.

According to the report quoted by Times of India, the pandemic has led to a significant increase in biomedical waste generation and disposal facilities have not gone up proportionately.

The report said 70 per cent of the states do not have well-established systems to monitor common biomedical waste treatment facilities and only 12 have upgraded as per new emission rules.

Data from Central Pollution Control Board, used in the study, shows states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Delhi, generated over 70 per cent of the Covid waste in the country.

Meanwhile, India reported 54,069 new cases of Covid-19 in a day which took the infection tally to 3,00,82,778 while 1,321 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 3,91,981, according to the Union Health Ministry data on Thursday.

The number of active cases has declined to 6,27,057 and is 2.08 per cent of the total infections. The national Covid-19 recovery rate has also improved to 96.61 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.

A net decline of 16,137 cases in the Covid-19 caseload has been recorded in a day. According to the inoculation data published at 7 am, India administered 64.89 lakh vaccine doses in a day taking the cumulative number of jabs given so far to 30.16 crore.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.91 per cent. It has been less than 5 per cent for 17 days in a row. The weekly positivity rate has also declined to 3.04 per cent, the ministry said. Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for the 42nd consecutive day. The number of people who have recuperated from COVID-19 surged to 2,90,63,740, while the case fatality rate was at 1.30 per cent, it said.

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