AFP
Cambodia should immediately release inmates who are most at risk from the coronavirus and pre-trial detainees eligible for bail amid the risk of “mass outbreaks” in the country’s overcrowded prisons and detention centers, a rights group said Monday.
While the coronavirus made few inroads into Cambodia in 2020, the country’s latest outbreak in February has led to nearly 180 deaths and the number of people infected with COVID-19—the disease caused by the virus—has climbed to nearly 25,800.
The drastic rise in infections recently led Prime Minister Hun Sen to issue crippling lockdown measures as part of a bid to curb the spread of the virus. While such measures—in addition to increased testing and vaccinations—have helped to protect the public, rights groups on Monday warned that a recent rash of COVID-19 cases in prisons in the capital Phnom Penh and Sihanouk province shows inmates are particularly susceptible to infection and current mitigation efforts are inadequate.