Zimbabwe's prison facilities: Preparedness for institutional COVID-19 outbreaks

Solomon Mukwenha; Tafadzwa Dzinamarira; Munyaradzi P Mapingure; Godfrey Musuka

doi:10.1016/j.puhip.2021.100089

Zimbabwe's prison facilities: Preparedness for institutional COVID-19 outbreaks

Public Health Pract (Oxf). 2021 Nov:2:100089. doi: 10.1016/j.puhip.2021.100089. Epub 2021 Feb 5.

Authors

Solomon Mukwenha¹, Tafadzwa Dzinamarira², Munyaradzi P Mapingure¹, Godfrey Musuka¹

Affiliations

¹ ICAP at Columbia University, Harare, Zimbabwe.
² Department of Public Health Medicine, School of Nursing and Public Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 4001, South Africa.

Abstract

Covid-19 cases and death are on the rise in Zimbabwe and other Southern African countries. This increase poses a major risk of outbreaks in institutions such as prisons and detention centers. Zimbabwe has a total of 46 main prisons that are overcrowded and without adequate running water, hand sanitizers, and face masks for both prisoners and warden officers. Although the country has released some prisoners, it is still not enough to decongest the prisons and mitigate the Covid-19 risk. There is a need to further decongest the prisons, ensure facilities have adequate tap water, and consider the use of video and audio technology to minimize visitors to inmates.

Keywords: Covid-19; Detention centers; Prisoner; Prisons.