Vatican confirms Pope does not have covid-19

Pope Francis raises the monstrance during eucharistic adoration at the end of Mass March 26, 2020, in the chapel of his Vatican residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae. About a dozen priests also live in the Vatican guesthouse and news reports March 25 said one of them, an Italian monsignor working in the Vatican Secretariat of State, had tested positive for COVID-19. (CNS photo/Vatican Media) See VATICAN-OFFICIAL-COVID-19 March 26, 2020.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Neither Pope Francis nor any of his closest collaborators have the Covid-19 virus, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office.

In a March 28 note, Bruni confirmed that a monsignor, who works in the Vatican Secretariat of State and lives in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where Pope Francis lives, did test positive for the coronavirus and, “as a precaution”, was hospitalised.

The Italian newspaper Il Messaggero and the Jesuit-run America magazine published reports on March 25 about the monsignor testing positive.

Bruni said that, as of March 28, the Vatican health service had conducted more than 170 tests for the virus. No one else who lives at the Domus Sanctae Marthae tested positive, Bruni said.

As soon as the monsignor tested positive, he said, his room and office were sanitised and all the people he had come into contact with over the preceding days were contacted.

“The health authorities carried out tests on the people in closest contact with the positive individual,” Bruni said. “The results confirmed the absence of other positive cases” among the residents of the Vatican guesthouse, but another employee of the Holy See who was in “close contact with the official” did test positive.

That brings to six the number of people in the Vatican who have tested positive, he said.

The Vatican press office had confirmed the first four cases on March 24. The first, already confirmed by the Vatican on March 6, was a priest from Bergamo who had a routine pre-employment exam at the Vatican health clinic. After he was discovered with symptoms, the clinic was closed temporarily for special cleaning, and the five people with whom the priest had come into contact were put under a preventive quarantine.

There were reports at the same time that the offices of the Secretariat of State were closed temporarily for a thorough cleaning.

The Vatican did not say when the next three people tested positive, but it said one worked in the Vatican warehouse and two worked at the Vatican Museums.

All four, the Vatican said March 24, “were placed in precautionary isolation” before their test results came back. “The isolation has already lasted more than 14 days; currently they are receiving care in Italian hospitals or in their own homes.”

Both America magazine and Il Messaggero said Pope Francis was unlikely to have had contact with the monsignor from the Secretariat of State who tested positive. Both reported that Pope Francis has been eating his meals in his room rather than the dining room since coming down with a bad cold after Ash Wednesday, February 26.

While the Vatican has cancelled all group meetings, Pope Francis continues to meet with individuals each day.

News reports said the Pope and his guests use hand sanitiser before and after the meetings.

Photo: Pope Francis raises the monstrance during eucharistic adoration at the end of Mass March 26, 2020, in the chapel of his Vatican residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae. (CNS Photo/Vatican media)

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