Sapporo Medical Journal

Abstract : To prevent the increase in the spread of new cases of Covid-19 requires the use of more medical equipment quantity such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), rapid and swab test than in normal conditions. In consequence, this Pandemic situation produces more medical waste in Primary Health Centers (Puskesmas), which must be managed according to the required health protocol. This study aims to describe the medical waste generation during the Covid-19 pandemic and its management in puskesmas. The research design used was a cross-sectional survey. This research was conducted at 60 health centers in Bandung City. The results showed there was no difference in the methods of managing medical waste under normal conditions with the Covid-19 pandemic. 93.3% out of 60 puskesmas experienced an increase in the amount of medical waste of 43.19% average. Most of them have sorted medical waste from domestic waste. Medical waste packaging in temporary storage has not been labeled and stored for more than two days at temperatures above 00C without using cold storage. Based on the result, it is recommended that integrated waste storage is needed per region for the temporary storage of medical waste, which is equipped with cold storage. The person in charge of the Environmental Health program in Puskesmas, 78.3% were Sanitarian/Environmental Health Workers.