Qatar confirms virus in jail, denies widespread outbreak
DOHA: Qatar confirmed 12 cases of Covid-19 at a jail Tuesday as campaign group Human Rights Watch warned other prisoners could be at risk of contracting the disease.
Two inmates were acutely ill but none had succumbed to the respiratory condition, the Government Communications Office said in a statement which denied there was a widespread outbreak among prisoners.
Human Rights Watch had said in a statement that six non-Qatari detainees “described a deterioration in prison conditions” at Doha’s Central Prison. “They said that the prison authorities also further restricted prisoners’ limited access to basic medical care,” it added describing the situation as ‘ an apparent outbreak’.
The campaign group has previously warned that cramped, unsanitary conditions in prisons worldwide and in worker accommodation in the Gulf make social distancing impossible and could accelerate the spread of the new coronavirus.
Almost 34,000 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the tiny Gulf country – 1.2 per cent of the 2.75 million population – although just 15 people have died.