The Borneo Post

Qatar confirms virus in jail, denies widespread outbreak

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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.

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