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With statistics on the morbidity of the coronavirus breaking records in the country, dozens of new cases of dangerous infection in convicts are registered every day.
Approximately 120 prisoners and 170 employees are ill in Lithuanian prisons. The World Health Organization has also been interested in this situation. According to the direction of the Department of Prisons, the type of premises in the institutions is very favorable for the spread of the virus.
PHOTO GALLERY. Covid-19 in prisons raises concerns: it is difficult to guarantee control
“We have premises where convicts serve their sentences in six, five and ten. We have a predominant type of bedroom. There are even places where there are up to 40 people, imagine that an infection enters, it is a ray that is guaranteed ”, says Virginijus Kulikauskas, Director of the Department of Prisons.
In case of illness, a prisoner must quarantine several or several dozen people who have contacted him.
“We have 680 isolated and quarantined individuals. That is, if out of 5,000, it is almost 20 percent. “This is a very large number,” says V. Kulikauskas.
What worries me the most are the prisoners in Alytus, because the prisoners have many comorbidities there. And here there are about fifty patients in the Pravieniškės Correctional Center. As all appointments are prohibited during quarantine, the sick are now housed in the facility. And in some places all the rooms are isolated.
“They are all isolated, we use the same meeting facilities as the other patients. They are quarantined in separate premises or in squads, because most of them live in dormitory-type premises, they are simply quarantined in those premises,” says Dainius Sušinskas , director of the Pravieniškės Correctional Center.
To prevent the spread of the virus in prisons, meetings with relatives are prohibited, they are replaced by phone calls or video calls. All newly arrived convicts are quarantined, investigated for Covid-19, and transfers from one institution to another are rare. There are more restrictions.
“We have restricted access to the same public figures, there is a restriction of live contact and the same investigators, prosecutors, lawyers, unfortunately the situation forces it,” said V. Kulikauskas.
Prisoners protecting themselves from the coronavirus wear masks everywhere, and the only distraction left is just a variety of activities, which are unfortunately minor.
“That busy time, you relax from all thoughts,” says convict Oleg.
“It just came to our attention then. Employment, employment,” says the doomed Richard.
“Since we have a prayer circle, we meet, we pray, we read the word,” says convict Remigijus.
The priest visits us from time to time, it is true, and those spiritual conversations are very limited, although now there are many more who wish to do so.
“Because quarantine is more difficult at the moment, because we need to understand this closed community, where the virus can spread very quickly, but we try to meet everyone’s needs as much as possible,” said Gintas Rumševičius, pastor of Rumšiškės parish. .
So far, all those convicted in Pravieniškės, as in other prisons, are in moderate form.
“No. There are fevers that have a temperature, but we do not have a severe or moderate form,” says D. Sušinskas.
There are no deaths from coronavirus, it is true for one after death, but the cause of death is another comorbidity. During the first wave of coronavirus in the spring, no prisoners had this dangerous infection and staff were ill 4.
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