Coronavirus stalks cells of Cameroon's crowded prisons

DAKAR/YAOUNDE - On the morning of April 24, Fritz Takang became so breathless he could barely walk across the cramped cell he shared with 60 inmates at the main prison in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.

Africa’s prison population of more than one million is especially vulnerable because of overcrowding, malnutrition and limited healthcare, health experts say. Patchy testing and reporting have frustrated efforts to track and contain its spread - both behind bars and in the community. Hundreds of cases of COVID-19 were recorded among the inmates released from five prisons dotted across Cameroon’s central region in April, according to government data seen by Reuters which has not been made public.

Some asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals. Prisoners are not officially allowed to possess phones, but many do. “I am sure a thousand people are infected,” Takang said in a croaky voice from an isolation bed at the Cameroonian Presbyterian Church Hospital in Yaounde, where he was taken on April 25. “You cannot leave your room without passing a hundred people. It is a horror.

The majority of positive samples came from Yaounde Central Prison, Cameroon’s largest, where the infection rate of those released and tested was 58%. Its population is still around 3,000, three times capacity, said the senior prison official. While he was in hospital, inmates and prison staff said they noticed an unusual number of people with coughs and fevers. Inmates cut up bed sheets and old t-shirts to make masks, they said.

Inmates, prison staff and their families were given the anti-malarial drug chloroquine, although there is no firm evidence to show it is effective against COVID-19.

Stark truth. Gvmts are silent on the cases in prisons.

So...

Why are they still holding these guys in the prison without necessary measures put in place to curb the spread? Or maybe a way to execute them? JesusSaves alllivesmatter

Now do, like, any jail or prison in the United States.

sad to acknowledge, but the disease is out of control in america. will be like that for the next 6 months i guess

nigers in congo

And then we have...USA! USA! USA! massincarceration prisons prisonstate PoliceState AbolishPrisons

If these are African countries, where is South Sudan 🇸🇸?

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