His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, encouraged believers to temporarily refrain from attending churches, while priests will continue to officiate the Liturgy same as before.
“I have been preaching from the cathedra for 51 years, urging people to come to churches. This has been the main deed of my life, and today I encourage you to stay in the deserts of your home, following the feat of the Venerable Mary of Egypt,” said the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, addressing believers after the Liturgy in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
He also encouraged everyone to strictly comply with sanitary regulations and recalled that a non-working week had been announced in Russia so that people could be isolated at home. According to the Patriarch, it is “a time of concentration of thought, close attention, and the organization of one’s life” and it would be wrong to use it for entertainment related to the violation of quarantine.
As of March 29, 2020, Russia recorded 1534 cases of the coronavirus infection COVID-19, and the number of new cases for a day was 270 people. 64 patients completely healed, 8 people died.
