Assessment of medical and pharmaceutical waste flows during the coronavirus pandemic in the Rabat-Sale-Kenitra region,Morocco

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented difficulties for health care institutions, which are required to manage not only the flow of patients with COVID-19, but also the management of medical and pharmaceutical waste (MPW). At the level of Morocco, the waste produced by hospitals has risen sharply in the regions most affected by the virus, such as the Rabat-Sale-Kenitra region (15.05% of recorded cases). The objective of this study is to perform a descriptive statistical analysis and to evaluate the generation rates of MPW generated during the treatment of the coronavirus pandemic, with reference to a large health care hospital in the region, in order to enable decision-makers to adopt responses in terms of regular and continuous management of MPW. The Moulay Abdellah hospital in Sale has a bedding capacity allocated to the COVID-19 patient of 110 beds with a Average Occupation Rate (AOR) of 100% and an average production of 13tons per month. The study showed that the average rate of MPW generated is 4 kg per bed per day, which is twice as high as the average generation rate during normal operation in 2019. As well, frequency analysis of the data revealed that MPW generation follows a log normal distribution with a correlation coefficient of 0.9. The distribution is skewed to the right and flatter than the normal distribution curve as judged by the skewness coefficient which is 0.87 and kurtosis coefficient which has a value of 1.286, indicating a deviation from normality.