Human rights organizations and activists said that there is a spread of symptoms similar to the symptoms of infection with Corona virus inside Tora investigation prison, south of Cairo.
The Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms spoke about "confirmed news about the spread of several symptoms inside Tora investigation prison, the most important of which are high temperature, pain in the body, cold, headache, sore throat and ear, loss of sense of smell, in addition to the presence of cough in some detainees."
The organization said in a statement that "the symptoms appear consecutively, and may be symptoms of the Corona virus or a bacterial infection that must be dealt with immediately", noting that there is no response from the prison administration, in addition to the deliberate negligence and the prevention of entry of medicines.
The authorities demanded the speedy examination and isolation of the sick and the injured, and "their release, like all countries of the world, before the outbreak completely, which could portend a catastrophe with the collapse of the health system in Egypt and the epidemic reaching its peak during these days."
For its part, the human rights organization "We are Registering" said that it is more likely that it would have a corona virus transmission inside the prison through "the employee of the Ministry of Interior Syed Ahmed Ahmed Hijazi, who works at the administration of Tora Prison, who died on May 29, due to infection with the Corona virus."
She explained that Hegazy is in daily contact with prisoners, officers and police, and that the aforementioned prison, like other Egyptian prisons, does not have any means to protect or restrict the spread of the virus.
The human rights organization pointed to its previous warning of the transmission of infection to the Egyptian prisons and the spread of the disease in light of the deteriorating and inhuman conditions that detainees suffer from, and demanded the immediate release of them while taking the necessary precautionary measures stipulated by the law, and a number of countries in the world have previously applied and released Hundreds of prisoners and convicted.
The Egyptian government and the Ministry of the Interior blamed "a humanitarian catastrophe, whose effects will be difficult to avoid at the public level."
This comes at a time when Egypt is witnessing a high incidence of infection with Corona virus, as the Ministry of Health announced yesterday, Saturday, the registration of 1367 new positive cases of Corona virus, bringing the total number of infected people to 23,449 cases, including 5693 cases that were cured and discharged from isolation and quarantine hospitals And announced the death of 34 cases, bringing the number of deaths to 913 cases.
Two days ago, human rights researcher Ahmed Al-Attar said that "24 political prisoners in Giza Public Prison have symptoms similar to Corona virus since the first days of the holiday, yet the prison administration continues to ignore this disastrous situation."
Al-Attar added in a post on his official account on Facebook, that the detainees suffer from high temperatures, vomiting and shortness of breath, accusing the prison administration of not providing the medicines, hygiene and sterilization tools necessary to protect the detainees.
Activists also circulated video protests of detainees inside the police station in Qanater facility in Giza Governorate, west of Cairo, in refusal of medical negligence and deteriorating conditions of detention.
The video included chants of the detainees demanding that they be presented to the prosecution and the judicial authorities, as one person appeared unconscious and the others are trying to help him and request help through the doors.
Nine human rights organizations issued a joint statement last January, expressing deep concern about the escalating number of deaths in Egyptian prisons since the beginning of this year, as a result of the continuing policy of denial of health care and the worsening medical neglect of patients and the elderly.
Human rights organizations say the number of political detainees in Egypt has exceeded 60,000 since the army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi on July 3, 2013, but the Egyptian authorities deny these numbers and say that prisons contain only prisoners by judicial orders.
Many political detainees in Egyptian prisons face the risk of death due to deliberate medical neglect and the absence of health care exacerbated by the Corona pandemic.
Human rights organizations have documented nearly nine hundred deaths due to medical negligence, poor living and torture in prisons since the military coup in the summer of 2013 until now.