The global pandemic caused by the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) has led to a dramatic increase in medical waste worldwide. This tremendous increase in medical waste is an important transmission medium for the virus and thus poses new and serious challenges to urban medical waste management. This study investigates the response of medical waste management to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent changes in Wuhan City based on the most detailed data available, including waste generation, storage, transportation, and disposal. The results show that despite a 5-fold increase in the demand for daily medical waste disposal in the peak period, the quick responses in the storage, transportation, and disposal sectors during the pandemic ensured that all medical waste was disposed of within 24 hours of generation. Furthermore, this paper discusses medical waste management during future emergencies in Wuhan. The ability of the medical waste management system in Wuhan to successfully cope with the rapid increase in medical waste caused by major public health emergencies has important implications for other cities suffering from the pandemic and demonstrates the need to establish resilient medical emergency systems in urban areas.

2019 年冠状病毒 (COVID-19) 引发的全球大流行导致全球医疗废物急剧增加。医疗废物的大幅增加是病毒的重要传播媒介，对城市医疗废物管理提出了新的严峻挑战。本研究根据现有最详细的数据，调查了武汉市医疗废物管理对 COVID-19 大流行的反应以及随后的变化，包括废物的产生、储存、运输和处置。结果显示，尽管高峰期日常医疗废物处置需求增长了5倍，但疫情期间储存、运输、处置环节的快速反应，保证了所有医疗废物在24小时内得到处置。一代。此外，本文还讨论了武汉未来突发事件期间的医疗废物管理。武汉医疗废物管理系统成功应对重大突发公共卫生事件造成的医疗废物快速增加的能力，对其他遭受疫情影响的城市具有重要意义，也表明需要在城市地区建立有弹性的医疗应急系统。