Prevention and control of COVID-19 in the penitentiary of Florence.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the general guidelines for managing SARS-CoV-2 infection in prison [[5]], [[6]]. Keywords: anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies; COVID-19; prison EN anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies COVID-19 prison e239 e241 3 06/03/21 20210601 NES 210601 To the Editor, Due to the dramatic diffusion of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), responsible for an acute respiratory syndrome that has spread rapidly all over the world causing thousands of deaths, we consider both the prevention and control of SARS-CoV-2 virus fundamental in prisons. In Italy, the Minister of Justice declared specific measures for detention institutions, such as blocking prison visits between inmates and external people, replaced by video calls; halting prisoner transfers between different prisons; transforming prison detention into house arrest for minor crimes and short arrests and adopting alternative sentences to reduce prison overpopulation. [Extracted from the article]