Egypt: Apparent Covid-19 Outbreaks in Prisons

[Shiloh]

Egypt: Apparent Covid-19 Outbreaks in Prisons
July 20, 2020 12:00AM EDT

(Beirut) – Several Egyptian prisons and police stations have had suspected Covid-19 outbreaks in recent weeks amid a strict official information blackout, Human Rights Watch said today.

Accounts by witnesses to Human Rights Watch, leaked letters from two prisons, as well as credible reports by local rights groups and media indicate that at least 14 prisoners and detainees have died, most likely from Covid-19 complications, in 10 detention facilities as of July 15. Even though scores of prisoners and detainees, at a minimum, have shown mild to severe Covid-19 symptoms, prisons had insufficient medical care and virtually no access to testing for the virus or symptom screening. The authorities have released about 13,000 prisoners since late February, but that number is insufficient to ease overcrowding in congested prisons and jails...

 

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/2...-station-after-suffering-covid-type-symptoms/

Detainee dies at Egypt police station after suffering covid-type symptoms
July 28, 2020 at 12:07 pm | Published in: Africa, Coronavirus, Egypt, HRW, International Organisations, News
July 28, 2020 at 12:07 pm

Another detainee has died in detention after suffering symptoms of the coronavirus.

Khaled Taha, 58, died at the Haram Police station as a result of a stroke and pneumonia.

His release was ordered on 8 July after he paid his bail, but he was never actually released.

His death follows a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) released last week which documented that at least 14 detainees had died of suspected coronavirus in Egypt across ten facilities since mid-July.

Of these 14 deaths, nine died in hospital and three of them were transferred just hours before they died...