Abstract

Total well-being and care for the vulnerable, especially the homeless, inmates, and refugees during the COVID-19 pandemic, is one of the barometers to measure Africa's response. Hence in the light of this scenario, our comment is on their care during this devastating period. We compared what is currently being done in the western world with what the African countries are doing. We have posed particular challenges with the welfare packages, the implementation of physical distances, good hygiene practices, limited access to screening and testing of COVID-19, as the outbreak invasion could be overwhelming if there is no intervention to bridge this gap. There is, therefore, an urgent need to consider welfare packages, an optimum hygiene environment, decongestion, and mass screening and testing for these groups of individuals, as they also have equal human rights to be protected during this pandemic.

Highlights

  • 1.6 billion people do not have adequate housing, 70.8 million displaced persons - 25.9 million refugees, 41.3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and 3.5 million asylum seekers, with more than 11 million prisoners worldwide

  • We do not yet have any information on the screening and testing of COVID-19 to understand the dynamics of silent transmission that may exist between these groups of individuals in Africa, except for South Africa, which has begun screening and testing for inmates and homeless [7]

  • South Africa, Kenya, Uganda and many other countries have closed their prisons to visitors for fear of a rapid spread of COVID-19

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Summary

Introduction

1.6 billion people do not have adequate housing, 70.8 million displaced persons - 25.9 million refugees, 41.3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and 3.5 million asylum seekers, with more than 11 million prisoners worldwide. South Africa (158,111), Ethiopia (113,727), Egypt (106,000), Morocco (82,512) and Nigeria (73,631) are the five African countries with the highest number of prisoners. South Sudan is at the top of Africa's refugee list, with 1.9 million

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