St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, which has been closed to tourists for the past two months due to the measures taken to curb the coronavirus spread, will reopen to visitors on Monday, the Vatican’s press office said today.
Since the pandemic began, the Vatican has decided to implement the same health rules as Italy.
St. Peter’s Basilica, as well as three other papal basilicas in Vatican, should follow the recommendation from the Italian Ministry of the Interior restricting the attendance at religious celebrations in enclosed places of worship to 200 people.
This morning, a cleaning crew went to the 23,000-square-meter basilica to disinfect it.
People attending services in St. Peter’s and other papal basilicas in Rome will have their temperature checked with thermoscanner as part of measures to reduce the coronavirus spread, the Vatican’s press office said.
The new rules for churches in Italy provide for a limited number of people inside the churches, social distancing and mask wearing, but they do not impose the use of thermal camera to scan for fevers, a fact which implies that the papal basilicas will have even stricter rules.
Matteo Bruni, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, said that the fever scan would take place at least during the Mass on Sundays and religious celebrations.
Source: ANA-MPA