Contaminated by the coronavirus pandemic, the Namur prison, in south-eastern Belgium, has been placed in quarantine and the inmates have been confined to their cells, the prison administration announced on Saturday.
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More than half of the 132 inmates and around 60 out of 115 staff have tested positive since a first case was discovered early last week.
One detainee was hospitalized, said administration spokeswoman Kathleen De Vijver. The situation is considered “very serious”, she stressed.
The administration has decided to confine the detainees in their cells and to establish a preventive quarantine. Hygiene products are distributed to them and they receive one hot meal per day. But they are deprived of walks, visits and can no longer access the shower rooms.
The British variant of the coronavirus, which appeared at the end of 2020 and more contagious, is now dominant in Belgium, where the authorities called on Friday for “very great caution” in the face of the first signs of a rebound in the epidemic.