As coronavirus continues to ravage across Italy, a clergyman who lives in the same residence as Pope Francis has been infected with the dreaded virus, and is currently hospitalised.
According to several Italian newspapers, the clergyman has lived for years in the Saint Martha’s guesthouse.
Il Messaggero said the person is “one of the pope’s closest collaborators, an official of the Secretariat of the State, who was found to have a slight temperature after going in for a routine check.”
The daily La Stampa said the unnamed person has been hospitalised in Rome and that his office has been disinfected.
Pope Francis has remained largely secluded at his residence since coming down with a cold late last month.
The 83-year-old pontiff has a small apartment in the building and that’s where his meals are taken. La Stampa said Pope Francis has been “eating alone in his room for some time” as a precaution.
He also has private meetings and occasionally moves to the Vatican library to record livestreamed messages to the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics.