(CNN) Kenya is decongesting its prisons to prevent overcrowding as a way to curtail the spread of coronavirus in the country.

In the past month, the East African country has released 4800 prisoners in different parts of the country, according to Anne Amadi, the chief registrar of the judiciary in Kenya.

Many of the sessions leading to the release of these prisoners were held virtually through Skype and Zoom, she said.

"We prioritized getting a lot of people out of prison, especially petty offenders. Those who are in prison for a short term and those who have been there for a long time but have just about six months and below to go," she told CNN.

"As of Friday last week, we managed to decongest the prison by about 4800 inmates from different parts of the country. All our 39 high court stations have released people. Most of them, a good number, through Skype or Zoom," she added.