Serbia and North Macedonia are preparing to celebrate Easter this weekend in their churches behind closed doors due to the extremely extensive curfew scheduled for Friday to next Tuesday as part of the fight against coronavirus.
The Serbian Orthodox Church has demanded this ban to be lifted on Sunday to allow worshipers to attend Pascha services.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, however, announcing his decision on Tuesday night on state television (RTS), did not respond immediately to the above request.
“I will beg on my knees the Serbian Patriarch to reconsider this request (…) but we will certainly not arrest priests,” he said, adding that he supported the doctors who proposed the ban.
In North Macedonia, the Orthodox Church has called on worshipers who would like to go to the churches to follow the instructions for social distancing and not to kiss the icons.
Serbia and North Macedonia have both announced that they have decided to extend the current curfew and implement it from Good Friday afternoon (17:00 in North Macedonia and 18:00 in Serbia) until 06:00 on Easter Tuesday morning.
These are the toughest measures decided by the two countries since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Source: ANA-MPA