PREPAREDNESS, PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF COVID-19
IN PRISONS AND OTHER PLACES OF DETENTION
18
Monitoring of contacts of suspect, probable and confirmed cases
• Contacts should be monitored for 14 days from the last unprotected contact.
• External contacts should self-limit travel and movements. In prison settings, monitoring should be done
by prison health-care or custodial staff with regular visits to see if symptoms have developed (this is
important as people in prison may have a disincentive to admit to developing symptoms as they could
be put in isolation).
• Any contact who becomes ill and meets the case definition becomes a suspect case and should be
tested.
• Any newly identified probable or confirmed cases should have their own contacts identified and
monitored.
Contact tracing should begin immediately after a suspect case has been identified in a prison or detention
facility, without waiting for the laboratory result, in order to avoid delays in implementing health measures
when necessary. This should be conducted by prison health-care or custodial staff under the supervision of
the competent national health authority and according to national preparedness plans. Every effort should be
made to minimize exposure of the suspect case to other people and the environment and to separate contacts
from others as soon as possible.38 Contacts outside the prison (visitors, etc.) should be followed up by the
health authorities.
11.5 Case reporting
COVID-19 has been added to the list of notifiable diseases that doctors have a duty to report to public health
authorities. COVID-19 is a high-consequence infectious disease (HCID) with outbreak potential in prisons
and other detention settings; possible cases in such settings should therefore be notified straightaway to
responsible public health authorities, who will then report to national and international authorities.
38
Operational considerations for managing COVID-19 cases/outbreak on board ships: interim guidance (24 February 2020). Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020
(https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/331164).
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents