The Vatican City State makes outdoor masks mandatory

Face covers must be worn outdoors within Vatican City State territory to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, a Vatican official announced Tuesday.

In an October 6 letter to the Vatican Department Heads, Bishop Fernando Vérgez, Secretary General of the Governorate of the Vatican City State, said that masks should be worn "in the open air and in all workplaces where the distance cannot always be guaranteed ”.

Vérgez added that the new rules also apply to extraterritorial properties in Rome that are located outside the Vatican City.

“In all environments this standard must be adhered to constantly,” he wrote, strongly recommending that all other measures to limit the virus be observed as well.

The move follows the introduction of a new ordinance in the Lazio region, which also includes Rome, which makes outdoor face coverings mandatory from 3 October, with fines of nearly $ 500 for non-compliance. The measure applies 24 hours a day, with exceptions for children under the age of six, people with disabilities and those who engage in physical activity.

As of October 5, there were 8.142 positive people for COVID-19 in Lazio, which also has the highest current number of ICU patients in all regions of Italy.

The new rules should be extended throughout Italy from 7 October.

Pope Francis was photographed wearing a face cover for the first time when he arrived for the general audience on 9 September. But he took off his mask as soon as he got out of the car that had left him.

Other Vatican officials, such as Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Cardinal Peter Turkson, have been portrayed often wearing masks.

On Sunday, Bishop Giovanni D'Alise of Caserta in southern Italy became the last Catholic bishop to die of COVID-19.

At least 13 other bishops are believed to have died from the coronavirus, which has killed more than a million people around the world. They include Archbishop Oscar Cruz, former president of the Philippine Bishops' Conference, Brazilian Bishop Henrique Soares da Costa, and English Bishop Vincent Malone.

D'Alise, 72, died on October 4, a few days after being hospitalized after contracting the coronavirus.

Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, offered his condolences on the same day.

"I express, in the name of the Italian episcopate, my closeness to the Church of Caserta in this moment of pain for the death of Bishop Giovanni", he said