The Vatican has confirmed that a patient in its health services has tested positive for coronavirus.
Spokesman Matteo Bruni said outpatient services in clinics have been suspended for deep cleaning. Most Vatican employees who use its health services live in Italy on the other side of the border with the tiny 728 – acre city state. He added that emergency services will continue, and that the Italian health authorities. had been informed
Mr Bruni gave no details on whether the person who tested positive was an employee or among the relatively few clergy or guards who live inside the city walls.
The Vatican has said Pope Francis, who cancelled a Lent retreat for the first time in his seven-year papacy after falling ill, is suffering only from a cold that is ‘without symptoms related to other pathologies’.
Italy remains the center of Europe’s coronavirus outbreak, particularly in the north.
So far the country has reported 800 deaths – the highest tally outside China – among more than 3, 800 cases.
The Vatican earlier announced it was working with Italian authorities to keep the coronavirus from spreading, with a suspension of Pope Francis’s weekly audiences now seeming even more likely.
The Italian government restricted visits to nursing homes and assisted living facilities to protect older people who have proved more vulnerable to succumbing to Covid – 108.
But with schools closed nationwide, many grandparents were called to duty as last-minute babysitters anyway.
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