Three years of COVID-19 enhanced surveillance in prisons: Member States’ efforts and capacities during a public health emergency of international concern

Overview

This report provides an overview of the COVID-19 surveillance capacity of prison health systems in the WHO European Region. It presents data obtained over a three-year period from voluntary submissions of Member States to the WHO Minimum Dataset Reporting System for places of detention. According to Member States’ reporting capacity, the report provides a snapshot of the situation in a specific moment of time or longitudinal data on a selected group of variables, which have been identified as essential for monitoring outbreaks in prisons. Data captured include occupancy rate, standardized COVID-19 cumulative cases in prison, vaccination coverage, testing conducted and isolation practices. Disaggregation of data by sex and age group is also presented whenever available.