In the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries in the Americas – specifically Venezuela, El Salvador, and Paraguay – have placed tens of thousands of people in state-run quarantine centres in insanitary conditions, sometimes without adequate food, water and medical care. They have also repeatedly extended their quarantine or isolation periods without clear communication of the scientific reasons for doing so. Amnesty International calls on authorities to stop resorting to these punitive approaches, and to quarantine and isolate people for only as long as absolutely necessary based on evolving scientific criteria.
