Environment Minister Cho Myung-rae held a video meeting in the general situation room of the Ministry of Environment (located in Jung-gu, Seoul) during the afternoon of February 27th. The purpose of the meeting was to review the current safety management status of COVID-19 related waste operations and discuss future action plans with heads of seven basin (local) environmental offices.

※ The seven basin (local) environmental offices: Han River Basin Environmental Office, Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office, Geumgang River Basin Environmental Office, Yeongsan River Basin Environmental Office, Wonju Regional Environmental Office, Daegu Regional Environmental Office, and Jeonbuk Regional Environmental Office

As the infectious disease was raised to its highest level on February 23rd, the Ministry issued the 'COVID-19 Related Waste Management Plan (second edition)' on the same day, as a complement to the first edition they issued on January 28th.

Key changes in the second edition are clear instructions on how to safely process the food waste of isolated patients, and the waste of people in self-isolation after ation of COVID-19, as isolated medical waste.

From January 23rd to February 26th, the Ministry has incinerated 86,355kg of COVID-19 related medical waste without hesitation.

In particular: 28,101kg of isolated medical waste from hospitalized ed patients, 2,484kg of isolated medical waste from the patients ed during self-isolation, and 55,770kg of the medical waste generated from the temporary isolation facility for Wuhan residents*.

* Can be considered as daily waste until the ation of COVID-19, but is being treated as medical waste due to the current situation.

According to the Ministry's inspection of medical waste treatment facilities nationwide, the national capacity to treat COVID-19 related medical waste is still considered sufficient.

- The exclusion of disposable diapers with a low possibility of COVID-19 infection from medical waste came into effect on January 1st, 2020. Thanks to this exclusion, the amount of general medical waste generation in January decreased by 15% in comparison to January 2019, providing more room to process COVID-19 related medical waste.

Also, the Ministry distributed 52,249 waste treatment kit units, including disinfectants and designated plastic bags, to safely process the waste of people in self-isolation.

To deal with the rapid increase of self-isolation in the future, the Ministry will secure extra disinfectants, specialized plastic bags, protective clothing, and other required items in advance to guarantee the continuous distribution of waste management resources.

The Ministry will have active discussions with other government agencies to secure financing to provide various items for the safety management of COVID-19 related waste, financial compensation for damages to medical waste treatment companies caused by the special waste management plan, and protective clothing.

"Despite the graveness of our current situation, I hope that the regional countermeasure headquarters of environmental offices and local governments will cooperate with each other closely and actively face the situation to thoroughly process COVID-19 related waste," stated Minister Cho.

"I want to give my special thanks to public officials and workers of waste treatment sites for their dedication. Please take extra care of their health and safety as well."