Vatican City is making plans to gradually ease the quarantine restrictions aimed at preventing the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin has been meeting with the Roman Curia to discuss gradually reopening Holy See offices as Italy prepares to end its national lockdown on 4 May.
The heads of Vatican dicasteries decided to implement a “gradual reactivation of ordinary services” while “safeguarding the health precautions to limit contagion”.
This will start in May, a statement from the Holy See Press Office says.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte says he will be releasing a plan to slowly lift coronavirus restrictions and reopen businesses.
“I wish I could say: let’s reopen everything. Immediately.”
“But such a decision would be irresponsible. It would bring up the contagion curve uncontrollably and it would frustrate all the efforts we’ve put in so far,” Conte wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
After over a month of lockdown, more than 100,000 people are currently ill with COVID-19 in Italy.
In total, 183,957 total cases were documented by the Italian Ministry of Health.
Vatican City has reported nine cases of COVID-19 among its employees. The most recent confirmed case was reported this week after the patient was hospitalised.
“Appropriate sanitisation and checks were carried out among those who had had contact with the interested party on the only day of his presence at the workplace in the two weeks prior to the response, all with negative results,” the Holy See Press Office says.
Vatican City is implementing measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus in coordination with the Italian authorities, the Holy See Press Office adds.
St. Peter’s Basilica and square, the Vatican Museums, and several other public offices in the Vatican City State have been closed for more than six weeks.
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