Vatican City, Feb 28, 2020: Pope Francis has cancelled an event at a Rome basilica but is carrying out the rest of his schedule in his residence, the Vatican said on February 27.

“He preferred to remain in the area close to Santa Marta,” the Vatican guesthouse where he lives, “but his other meetings proceed regularly,” spokesman Matteo Bruni said. His words were intended to downplay the concern that his condition might be in any way serious or that he could have contracted the coronavirus that has hit so many people in Italy—one of the countries with the most victims after China, South Korea and Japan.

The pope’s spokesman tried to downplay the concern that his condition might be in any way serious.
The Vatican released a picture of the pope and Cardinal Antonio Tagle, a Filipino who has just started in a new post in the Vatican, meeting on February 27 morning with members of the Global Catholic Climate Movement, an international environmental group.

The meeting took place in a building, steps from the guest house.

The pope appeared to have a cold and spoke with a slightly hoarse voice at his general audience on February 26 and coughed during an afternoon Ash Wednesday service in a Rome church.

Francis is missing a part of one lung.

It was removed when he was in his early 20s in his native Buenos Aires after he suffered from tuberculosis, according to biographer Austen Ivereigh.

He also suffers some leg pain due to sciatica, for which he undergoes regular physical therapy and which explains his occasional difficulty climbing steps.

But he is in generally good health and has been able to endure about four gruelling international trips each year since his election in 2013.

The news of the pope’s indisposition as more than 400 people have contracted coronavirus and 12 have died of it in Italy, in the worst contagion from the coronavirus so far recorded in Europe.

A number of people wore masks in St Peter’s Square at the February 26 audience but only one person was seen wearing one at the pope’s Ash Wednesday service.
Source:.freemalaysiatoday.com