Zero confirmed cases: The ways we curb COVID-19 in Taiwanese prisons

The problem of transmission of infectious diseases in prison has come into focus amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Even outwith the immediate COVID-19 pandemic, it is well known that prisoners are at higher risk of infectious diseases than those in the wider community at other times [1]. It has been reported that most prisoners return to their communities with their illness occasionally untreated and sometimes worsened. These prisoners increase the public health burden by acting as reservoirs of infection [1]. It needs to be fully acknowledged that prison health is an issue of public health. Prison COVID-19 outbreaks have been reported and documented in China, India, Iran, Egypt, Malaysia, USA, Italy, UK, Congo, Nairobi, Salvador, Brazil, Colombia-indeed, almost every country where people in the wider community have contracted COVID-19 [2].