2. To present effective preventive and response mechanisms for: → preventing the introduction of COVID-19 into prisons and other places of detention; → preventing the transmission of COVID-19 in prisons and other places of detention; → preventing the spread of COVID-19 from prisons and other closed settings to the community. 3. To outline an appropriate approach to dovetailing the prison health system and the national and local health and emergency planning system for: → preventive measures, including physical distancing and hand hygiene facilities; → disease surveillance; → identification and diagnosis, including contact tracing; → treatment and/or referral of COVID-19 cases requiring specialized and intensive care; → wider system impacts (including impact of other measures on workforce, e.g. need for home isolation, etc.). 5. TARGET AUDIENCE This guidance is intended to assist health-care and custodial staff working in prisons and other places of detention to coordinate public health action in such settings; it provides information on: • the novel COVID-19 virus; • how to help prevent spread of COVID-19;16 • what to do if a person in prison/other place of detention or a staff member with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection is identified; • what advice to give to people in prison or in another place of detention and their family members, or to staff members, travelling from affected areas within the last 14 days. The information given here will also be useful for prison authorities, public health authorities and policymakers, prison governors and managers, health-care professionals working in prison settings, detention centre employees, people in detention, and the social contacts of people in detention. The following large, institutional, residential establishments are included within the definition of places of detention used in this guidance: • prisons (public and privately managed) • immigration detention settings • the children and young people’s detention estate. 16 This applies to respiratory infections that are transmitted mainly via droplets. For aerosol-transmitted diseases such as tuberculosis, refer to: WHO guidelines on tuberculosis infection prevention and control. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2019 (https://www.who.int/tb/publications/2019/guidelines-tuberculosis-infection-prevention-2019/en). 7