H5N1

Hubei struggles to handle a mountain of medical waste

Via Sixth Tone: Hubei Struggles to Handle a Mountain of Medical Waste. Excerpt:

In late January, Hubei Zhongyou Youyi EP Technology Co. — a waste treatment company based in the central Chinese city of Xiangyang — received a call from the local authorities. Officials requested the firm to send any workers and vehicles they could spare to Wuhan, the city at the heart of the COVID-19 epidemic, as soon as possible. 

A convoy of five Hubei Zhongyou garbage trucks made the 350-kilometer journey Jan. 29. Their mission was to help transport tons of used face masks, biohazard suits, and bedclothes from Wuhan’s hospitals to disposal sites for destruction.  

At first, the small team of 12 workers and volunteers thought the cleanup job would only take a week. But now, a month later, Hubei Zhongyou has as many as 85 people stationed in Wuhan as the virus-stricken city struggles to deal with unprecedented volumes of contaminated waste.  

The central province of Hubei, where Wuhan is located, has borne the brunt of the epidemic, with over 67,000 people infected and 2,800 killed as of Monday. The crisis has stretched local health systems to their breaking point, forcing the government to build new hospitals from scratch, convert exhibition centers into makeshift wards, and dispatch thousands of medical workers to the region. 

But while attention has been focused on Hubei’s shortage of hospital beds and supplies, cities have also faced severe shortfalls in staff, vehicles, and treatment facilities able to safely dispose of used medical equipment.   

Waste from hospitals has to be dealt with carefully, as it may be infected with harmful microorganisms and could become a secondary source of infection, health experts told Sixth Tone. 

“Protective clothing, surgical gowns, as well as bed sheets and duvet covers used by coronavirus patients — this stuff can’t be reused,” said Yin Kaiwen, head of logistics at a designated clinic for patients infected with COVID-19 based in Wuhan. 

Cities have specialized systems for disposing of medical waste, but they were quickly overwhelmed during the early stages of the epidemic. Before the outbreak began, Wuhan had one dedicated medical waste treatment facility with a processing capacity of 50 tons per day. By Jan. 24, however, the city was producing four times that amount.  

Bags of used equipment piled up in parking lots outside some hospitals in Wuhan due to the backlog at treatment plants and lack of waste transportation vehicles. Nearly 200 tons of additional waste remained inside storage facilities, according to government estimates.  

“The epidemic in Wuhan is the worst in the country,” said Yan Zuhai, deputy head of publicity at Wuhan’s ecology and environment bureau, in a phone interview with Sixth Tone Feb. 26. “Faced with this powerful enemy, the city currently doesn’t have the capacity to handle the (medical) waste.”  

China took emergency measures to deal with the crisis Jan. 28, handing local authorities the power to burn medical waste using nonstandard facilities, set up mobile treatment centers, and transport excess waste to nearby cities for disposal. 

In the weeks since, Wuhan has used incinerators designed for household and hazardous waste, industrial furnaces, and even cement kilns to destroy used medical supplies. It has also enlisted the help of treatment companies in other cities, including Hubei Zhongyou. 

“Wuhan’s medical waste disposal system isn’t designed to cope with an emergency,” said Sun Yu, director of enterprise management at Hubei Zhongyou. “We’re helping them relieve their shortage of transportation and treatment capacity.”

COVID-19 has temporarily reduced China’s CO2 emissions by a quarter

Via Carbon Brief: Analysis: Coronavirus has temporarily reduced China’s CO2 emissions by a quarter. Excerpt:

As China battles one of the most serious virus epidemics of the century, the impacts on the country’s energy demand and emissions are only beginning to be felt.  

Electricity demand and industrial output remain far below their usual levels across a range of indicators, many of which are at their lowest two-week average in several years. These include:  

• Coal use at power stations reporting daily data at a four-year low. 

• Oil refinery operating rates in Shandong province at the lowest level since 2015. 

• Output of key steel product lines at the lowest level for five years. 

• Levels of NO2 air pollution over China down 36% on the same period last year. 

• Domestic flights are down up to 70% compared to last month. 

All told, the measures to contain coronavirus have resulted in reductions of 15% to 40% in output across key industrial sectors. This is likely to have wiped out a quarter or more of the country’s CO2 emissions over the past two weeks, the period when activity would normally have resumed after the Chinese new-year holiday.

Over the same period in 2019, China released around 400m tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2), meaning the virus could have cut global emissions by 100MtCO2 to date. The key question is whether the impacts are sustained, or if they will be offset – or even reversed – by the government response to the crisis. 

Initial analysis from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) suggests the repercussions of the outbreak could shave up to half a percent off global oil demand in January-September this year.  

However, the Chinese government’s coming stimulus measures in response to the disruption could outweigh these shorter-term impacts on energy and emissions, as it did after the global financial crisis and the 2015 domestic economic downturn.

Analysis: Coronavirus has temporarily reduced China’s CO2 emissions by a quarter

Via Carbon Brief, an eye-opener: Analysis: Coronavirus has temporarily reduced China’s CO2 emissions by a quarter. Excerpt (but read the whole thing), and then a comment:

As China battles one of the most serious virus epidemics of the century, the impacts on the country’s energy demand and emissions are only beginning to be felt.  

Electricity demand and industrial output remain far below their usual levels across a range of indicators, many of which are at their lowest two-week average in several years. These include:  

• Coal use at power stations reporting daily data at a four-year low. 

• Oil refinery operating rates in Shandong province at the lowest level since 2015. 

• Output of key steel product lines at the lowest level for five years. 

• Levels of NO2 air pollution over China down 36% on the same period last year. 

• Domestic flights are down up to 70% compared to last month. 

All told, the measures to contain coronavirus have resulted in reductions of 15% to 40% in output across key industrial sectors. This is likely to have wiped out a quarter or more of the country’s CO2 emissions over the past two weeks, the period when activity would normally have resumed after the Chinese new-year holiday.  

Over the same period in 2019, China released around 400m tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2), meaning the virus could have cut global emissions by 100MtCO2 to date. The key question is whether the impacts are sustained, or if they will be offset – or even reversed – by the government response to the crisis. 

Initial analysis from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) suggests the repercussions of the outbreak could shave up to half a percent off global oil demand in January-September this year.  

However, the Chinese government’s coming stimulus measures in response to the disruption could outweigh these shorter-term impacts on energy and emissions, as it did after the global financial crisis and the 2015 domestic economic downturn.

Regardless, Bejiing's air quality index as of 7:00 a.m. Thursday morning, local time, is in the 170s and 180s (unhealthy).

Coal mines need miners amid COVID-19 travel restrictions

Via Caixin Global: Coal Mines Need Miners Amid Virus Travel Restrictions. Excerpt and then a comment:

China’s coal heartlands are still operating well below their gigantic capacity, government statistics show, even after the official return to work after an extended Lunar New Year holiday due to the coronavirus. 

Ordos, in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, has 333 coal mines and can produce more of the fossil fuel than any other city in China — 838 million tons a year. But as of Wednesday only 72 mines have resumed operations, representing a little more than two-fifths of the city’s total production capacity, according to the local energy administration.  

The situation in Ordos is replicated throughout the world’s largest coal producing nation. According to China’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, only 57.8% of China’s coal mines had resumed work as of Monday, the first official work day after the government lengthened the normally week-long Lunar New Year break to curb the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus. 

 “This is because (coal mines are) short-handed, so they cannot run to full capacity,” said a person familiar with the industry in Northwest China’s Shaanxi province, a major coal mining region. Another coal industry analyst said some mines have had to reassign workers from production to safety-checking due to staffing issues, which has further depressed output.  

Travel restrictions that aim to keep the virus in check after it has infected tens of thousands of people and spread both around the country and world have prevented many miners — who are often migrant workers from other parts of the country — from traveling back to their workplaces after the Lunar New Year holiday. It’s still unclear when these restrictions will be lifted, an industry insider said.

It's some consolation that the outbreak is at least helping reduce CO2 emissions and air pollution.

COVID-19: Wednesday night In China

Via the Global Times, an excerpt from its Real-time update on coronavirus outbreak:

10:25 pm Feb 12 China-Japan Friendship Hospital said it is now carrying out clinical trial on #COVID-19 drug Remdesivir. 

09:48 pm Feb 12 Five Hubei officials have been sacked due to violations of work discipline and failure to fulfil duties amid the coronavirus outbreak, including an official from the cultural and tourism bureau of Wuhan. 

09:10 pm Feb 12 The @F1 ChineseGP, originally scheduled for April 17-19, has been postponed due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. 

09:04 pm Feb 12 The Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said they have finished the first-phase of the backup vaccine to treat the coronavirus that has killed over 1,000 in China. 

08:56 pm Feb 12 Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the the CPC Central Committee on Wed called for intensifying the macro adjustments to tackle economic impact of the #coronavirus outbreak and policies to support employment and small businesses.  

08:35 pm Feb 12 China's State Council on Wed called for special attention to employment to prevent large-scale layoffs due to the coronavirus, with measures such as using local unemployment insurance funds to support employers and stabilize the jobs market. 

06:27 pm Feb 12 As of noon of Tuesday, the total credit loans from banking institutions exceeded 349 billion yuan ($50.1 billion) to help prevent and control the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak, and promote enterprises to resume work: China Banking Association. 

05:50 pm Feb 12 China's environmental monitor said that SO2 levels in Wuhan remained low at 4-8 µg/m3 at one point on Sunday, refuting data published by Windy.com over links to the rising number of cremations caused by coronavirus. 

05:47 pm Feb 12 Officials of Wuhan's Wuchang district apologized to patients for the negligence of duty by community committee employees in transferring a batch of coronavirus patients to a designated hospital and instructed those derelict employees to tender an apology to these patients. 

05:41 pm Feb 12 China launches an app to help people know if they have come to a close contact with someone who is infected or suspected of being infected by the novel coronavirus. Users only need to enter their name and ID number, which they commonly used for taking public transportations. 

05:40 pm Feb 12 WHO chief says first vaccine for novel coronavirus could be available in 18 months 

05:31 pm Feb 12 China's Ministry of Education is researching whether to postpone gaokao college entrance examinations amid coronavirus outbreak. 

05:28 pm Feb 12 More than 180 drama series, documentaries, and animations made their content royalty-free in China and will be aired on televisions to encourage people nationwide to resolutely fight the battle against the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID19) epidemic. 

05:13 pm Feb 12 Hubei authority has shipped 180,000 nucleic acid test kits for the diagnosis of coronavirus infection, distributing more than 90,000 kits to relevant laboratories. So far, Wuhan has 40 labs that can conduct 8,000 to 10,000 tests daily.

Philippines: Ghost towns around Taal as frightened thousands flee volcano

Via ABS-CBN News: Ghost towns around Taal as frightened thousands flee volcano. Excerpt:

TALISAY, Batangas -- An ashen beach and toppled trees were all that remained of a popular wedding venue a short boat ride from Taal, one of many areas transformed into ghost towns overnight as thousands fled the volcano's wrath. 

Roads were shrouded in thick gray smoke as evacuees, their heads wrapped in cloth, clambered onto pickup trucks. Markets and offices in city centers were shut with a "hazardous" eruption possible, according to authorities.  

Rains were expected in the ash-covered provinces of Batangas, Cavite, and Laguna, threatening to turn the debris into mud. A state of calamity was declared in Batangas, which will allow authorities there to tap emergency funds and freeze prices of basic goods. 

The ash clouds from Sunday's eruption prompted the overnight closure of Manila's main airport, where some 240 flights were canceled. It reopened at noon with ashfall seen to shift to Quezon province. 

"You could not sleep anymore, because every time you closed your eyes the house would shake," restaurant owner Lia Monteverde told AFP, describing the earthquakes that followed the eruption. 

"All of us didn't sleep at all. We just prepared to leave."  

At Balai Isabel, the popular wedding events venue, ash-covered the beachfront while tires of parked cars and SUVs were caked in mud.

Philippines: Ash blanket stalls travel, markets as thousands flee rumbling Taal

Via ABS-CBN News: Ash blanket stalls travel, markets as thousands flee rumbling Taal. Click or tap through for a video.

TAGAYTAY CITY -- (UPDATE) Gray ash from Taal Volcano blanketed large parts of Southern Luzon and Metro Manila on Monday, shutting the country's main airport overnight, prompting a health advisory, and forcing thousands to flee as authorities kept vigil for a possible hazardous eruption.  

The Ninoy Aquino International Airport reopened for departures at 10 a.m. and arrivals at 12 p.m., aviation authorities said as they managed a throng of passengers at the terminal. 

Relief workers trudged through ash-covered roads with their headlights on at dawn in Agoncillo, Batangas. In the capital, people lined up for face masks, some at 8 times the retail price as they cleaned ash-covered cars and roofs.  

Taal spewed lava on Monday, a day after it blew ash and steam into the air. Alert Level 4, the second-highest in a 5-step scale, was raised, meaning a "hazardous" eruption was possible in days. 

"Napakabilis ng pagbabago ng kanyang kundisyon (The condition is changing very rapidly)," said Phivolcs Director Renato Solidum. 

In a "worst case scenario," Solidum told DZMM that magma could come out of the volcano as it shoots ash and rocks into the air.

Located in the middle of a picturesque lake that straddles the tourist city of Tagaytay and a heritage town of the same name, Taal's last eruption was in 1977, Solidum earlier said.  

Inhaling ash could lead to cough and difficulty and breathing. It could also irritate the eyes, the Department of Health said. The public was also warned about the possibility of roofs caving in due to accumulated ash.

Bushfires: Being pregnant in a climate emergency was an existential challenge

Thanks to Dr. Alexandra Phelan to tweeting the link to this deeply disturbing report in The Guardian: Being pregnant in a climate emergency was an existential challenge. Miscarriage has brought a new grief. Excerpt:

On Boxing Day I had an article published about being pregnant in a climate emergency. It was about the conflicting and contradictory emotions many of us are forced to hold if we choose to take the leap of faith of bringing a child into the world in the midst of climate collapse.  

At the time I wrote that piece, the smoke came and went. Occasionally we caught snippets of blue sky.  

We could still hear birds then. See bees feeding on the summer flowers in our garden.  

Just six days later, the house surrounded by a dense glowing orange fog of smoke, my writing felt both prescient and dated. The birds were gone. Canberra, and the wildlife that lives in the national parks that encircle it, was suffocating. Climate collapse wasn’t a slow-moving force my child and I might gradually see impact our lives. It was here, now. Upon us and immediate.  

That was the day the smoke was the thickest. So thick it shut down the whole city, the airport closed, all roads in and out cut off with fire. It was the first day that felt like sunset from start to finish. A colour we’ve come to think of as “apocalypse orange”. 

When, even though no fire had crossed the borders of the Australian Capital Territory, Canberrans had their cars packed to evacuate. Where everyone clutched their iPhones flicking between the live fire reporting and the live air quality reporting. Back, and forth, back and forth … on and on, we livestreamed the end of the world.

That was also the day before I was due to have a pregnancy ultrasound. Sitting in my bedroom in the orange semi-light at midday I looked at the murky sight outside my window and wondered “What have I done?” At best, I was experiencing the type of prolonged and acute stress that means my baby was flooded with potentially life-altering cortisol hormones and had, despite my best efforts, no doubt been exposed to damaging levels of fine particulates. At the worst, had I created a person who would be born just to watch the world end?  

Perhaps, I thought, I have made a terrible mistake.  

Sitting 600km away in Melbourne as I write this, where the sky is blue and people come and go about their daily life, it’s hard to convey the intensity of living in the middle of a long-running disaster. The world narrows. Your ability to think critically evaporates.  

New daily rituals emerge – wake up, check the fire warnings, check the air quality reading. Get out of bed, check the air purifier. Next, wash brown smoky water out of clothing or animals that have left the sanctuary of the house for any period of time. 

Then go about your day, trapped inside, always with one eye on the live stream. Your social life reduces to rushing from your car inside a friend’s house where you look at the live stream together while externalising your shared internal monolog of “We are not OK. The world is not OK.”  

That next day, at the ultrasound, there was no heartbeat.

Australia bushfires: Sydney air quality hits 1631

I can hardly believe the Oakdale Sydney South-west, Australia Air Pollution: Real-time Air Quality Index for 7:00 a.m. Tuesday, January 7:

"Hazardous" is defined as 300-500; this reading more than triples the theoretical worst. Long-term health consequences will be felt in southeast Australia for decades to come.

Australia: Governments must act on public health emergency from bushfire smoke, medical groups say

Via the Australia edition of The Guardian: Governments must act on public health emergency from bushfire smoke, medical groups say. Excerpt:

Some 22 groups representing health and medical professionals in Australia have issued a joint call to act on a “public health emergency” caused by smoke from the catastrophic bushfire season in New South Wales.  

In Sydney and others areas of NSW communities have been exposed to air pollution up to 11 times worse than “hazardous” levels. 

The group has produced a joint statement calling for political leadership while repeating a call for a national strategy to combat the health impacts of climate change.  

Dr Kate Charlesworth, a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, which signed the statement, said: “Climate-related health effects are having the most impact on our most vulnerable: babies, children, the elderly and people with pre-existing disease. There is no safe level of air pollution.”

“To protect health, we need to shift rapidly away from fossil fuels and towards cleaner, healthier and safer forms of energy.” 

Among the 22 groups that signed the statement are the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, Public Health Association of Australia, Australian College of Nursing, Australian Association of Social Workers and Lung Foundation Australia. 

The statement says the federal and NSW governments must “prioritise action to help reduce the risks to people’s health arising from hazardous air pollution”.  

Fiona Armstrong, executive of the Climate and Health Alliance, said: “This is a public health emergency.” She added: “Climate change is going to get much worse and we will see more and more of these events.”  

Dr Lai Heng Foong, of Doctors for the Environment Australia, which has also signed the statement, said: “Pollution from bushfire smoke remains hazardous to people, in the short term and also the long-term.”  

Many of the groups that have signed the statement are also pushing for Australia to respond to the health impacts of climate change. 

Mark Brooke, CEO of Lung Foundation Australia, said a national strategy was needed. 

“Climate change and air quality significantly contribute to poor lung health, increased health and economic burden, disability and death,” he said. 

“If we want to prevent the worst air pollution from bushfire smoke, one of the best things our governments can do, aside from fuel reduction burns, is to set stronger and better standards for everyday air quality.”