Vatican City on Friday confirmed its first case of coronavirus infection and closed several offices as a precaution against the disease’s spread.
The Vatican closed a health clinic after a priest from France on Thursday tested positive for the disease, known as COVID-19. The Vatican also placed one official who had been exposed to the infected priest in quarantine, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni. The official has not tested positive, but the person lives in the same church as the priest.
The Vatican Apostolic Library will also be closed next week as a further precaution.
The virus has been present in Rome for several weeks, but the outbreak has not been as serious as in the northern Italian provinces of Lombardy and Veneto, which have seen the highest incidences of the disease. Italy has confirmed nearly 4,000 cases of the virus, with more than 150 deaths.
Pope Francis came down with a “slight indisposition” after Ash Wednesday Mass last week, according to Vatican officials. The pope canceled the next three days of events as well as a Lenten retreat, which he had planned to attend.
The Vatican confirmed on Wednesday that Francis did not have the coronavirus, but only a cold “without symptoms linked to other pathologies.”
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