a health-care emergency involving people in prisons and other places of detention? Are there standard operating procedures in place for environmental cleaning and disinfection, including for linens and utensils?); → staffing contingency planning with a special focus on (a) staff availability and business continuity, including local minimum service (e.g. essential medications, diabetic checks, wound dressings, etc.); and (b) health-care needs and provision – discuss the possibility/feasibility of providing care within prison versus the need to transfer patients to community health-care services for specialized/ intensive care, as well as the expected impact on custodial staff contingency planning. An essential element to be carefully considered in any preparedness plan for respiratory infectious diseases such as COVID-19 is availability and supply of essential supplies, including PPE and products for hand hygiene and environmental sanitation and disinfection. It is therefore recommended that prison governors, in collaboration with health-care professionals in prisons and other places of detention, assess the need for PPE and other essential supplies in order to ensure continuity of provision and immediate availability. It should be noted that, in order to avoid inappropriate use and misuse of PPE,27 staff and people in prison should be adequately trained (for further information on training, see section 9 below). In some countries, the proportion of the population in detention that meets the criteria for influenza vaccination has been used as a basic proxy measure of the potential demand on health-care services in the case of COVID-19 outbreak in detention settings. Given the possibility that some common disinfectants, such as those containing alcohol, may be misused, soap and water, together with personal towels, should be considered as a first option for hand hygiene. These should be supplied in rooms/cells night and day. Chlorine-based gels may be used by prison guards and by people in prison or in other places of detention in common spaces and/or if soap and water are not available. In the case of environmental disinfection, however, it is necessary to ensure that chlorine-based products are kept locked up when not being used by service providers. 27 Rational use of personal protective equipment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): interim guidance (27 February 2020). Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020 (https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/331215/WHO-2019-nCov-IPCPPE_use-2020.1-eng.pdf). 13