As of 4 September, a total of 127 persons had been recruited that year, and were assigned to individual units based on the vacant positions in the individual organizational units123. • SITUATION DURING THE EPIDEMIC Starting from the moment of the person’s detention, the responsibility for protecting his/her life and health lies with the police. The fundamental rights of all people, including those in detention, include the right to health protection, which was subject to a particularly careful analysis by the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in the time of the coronavirus pandemic. In this context, the representatives of the NMPT examined the conditions existing in police detention facilities, from the point of view of the implemented procedures and access to personal protection equipment. Taking into account the growth in the number of people infected with the coronavirus, that had taken place since March 2020, the Commissioner for Human Rights requested the Police Commander in Chief for information on the state of the preparations of police organizational units where detainees were held (police stations, RDPs, police emergency centres for children) for the situation of the spread of the virus 124. On 27 March 2020, the CHR requested the Prime Minister to order the relevant public institutions to carry out a review of their measures, applied procedures and resources, in order to verify whether detained persons are not exposed to the risk of COVID-19 infection, do not have their rights limited, and that their protection against all forms of ill-treatment is guaranteed125. The issue of the means of protection against the coronavirus had also been examined during the monitoring visits to the police stations. The following findings have been made: • All detainees interviewed by the NMPT representatives were wearing protective masks. Some of them reported that they had received them from the police officers who detained them, but in most cases they were not offered masks. • Some persons indicated that during their detention within the police stations, no protection measures were taken in connection with the coronavirus pandemic, or that the solutions used to this end were very limited. During the ad hoc visits conducted on 8 August 2020 it was discovered that only few detainees had their body temperature checked as a preventive measure (of the 33 detainees to whom the NMPT representatives spoke). In many cases, the detainees had no possibility to wash or disinfect their hands. The detainees pointed out that at the entrance doors to the police stations, there were dispensers with disinfectants. However, the detainees 123 Letter of the Warsaw Police Commander of 4 September 2020, PC-869/830/20, sent in reply to the report on the visit to RDP at the Warsaw Police Headquarters, KMP.570.3.2020. 124 Letter of 12 March 2020 (KMP.071.4.2020.PK). 125 Letter of the Commissioner for Human Rights to the Prime Minister, of 27 March 2020, no. KMP.571.2.2020. 56