Without proper strategies, prisons could become COVID-19 ‘epicenter’.

Without proper strategies, prisons could become COVID-19 ‘epicenter’Compared with other countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States generally has a higher incarceration rate, with more than 10 million people booked into jails each year. This specific setting poses “a unique set of challenges” when it comes to COVID-19 prevention that require action and attention, according to an editorial published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Q: What makes inmates susceptible to COVID-19? A: People who are incarcerated are susceptible to COVID-19 for many reasons. They tend to, on average, have a higher burden of chronic illness compared with their nonincarcerated counterparts. In addition, factors at the facility level can put people in these institutions at increased risk, too. In these settings, it is very difficult to engage in social distancing, soap and/or hand sanitizer are not widely available and there may be medical copays that act as a barrier to seeking help.