The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society today confirmed 15 new Covid-19 cases among Palestinians in Israeli custody.
PPS said in a press statement that 15 Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli prison of Ramon have tested positive for the highly contagious virus, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the same prison since January 11 to 53 and raising the total confirmed cases in all prisons and detention centers to over 265.
It added that the virus has spread in two new sections, namely Section 2 and Section 6, bringing the number of sections in which the virus infection appeared to five out of seven sections, where over 650 Palestinian prisoners are detained.
The new infections were detected after random samples were taken from all sections of the prison, PPS said while pointing out that the Israeli Prison Services (IPS) informed the prisoners that its decision to cancel their vaccination, which was scheduled today.
PPS blamed the spread of the pandemic to new prison sections on procrastination and disregard in taking the Covid-19 samples and announcing the test results on the part of IPS.
It called upon the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross to take immediate and serious action to secure the release of patient prisoners, particularly the elderly who contracted the virus, as well as to dispatch an international medical committee to examine the poor health conditions of such prisoners.
