WHO COVID-19 prison surveillance protocol: monitoring and reporting COVID-19 in prisons and other places of detention (2021)

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The WHO COVID-19 Prison Surveillance Protocol is developed to support the reporting of COVID-19 in prisons and other places of detention. This protocol establishes the principles and definitions of a surveillance system devised by the WHO Health in Prisons Programme (HIPP) to monitor COVID-19 infections in prisons and other places of detention and to report the main measures to prevent, control and manage the spread of the disease.

The protocol comprises national reporting of COVID-19 cases in prisons and other places of detention to include aggregated numbers of cases across all prison units and facilities in the country and prison-based reporting of COVID-19 cases at the level of individual prison units and facilities. The protocol refers to the main objectives of the surveillance system:

  1. To monitor the intensity of COVID-19 in the prison population;
  2. To evaluate the spread of COVID-19 among older individuals in the prison population;
  3. To measure the impact of COVID-19 on the prison population in terms of mortality and hospitalizations;
  4. To assess the impact of COVID-19 on the prison system in terms of testing, quarantine and isolation; and
  5. To evaluate the implementation of national COVID-19 vaccination plans in prisons.