The Pope is asked to suspend the Angelus due to the coronavirus

The Italian consumer rights group Codacons on Saturday invited Pope Francis to cancel his Angelus speech because of fears of spreading the Chinese coronavirus.

"Currently, all large gatherings of people from many parts of the world represent a potential risk to human health and fuel the risk of spreading the virus," said Carlo Rienzi, president of the association on Saturday.

"In this delicate phase of great uncertainty, therefore, extreme measures are needed to protect public safety: for this reason we appeal to Pope Francis to suspend tomorrow's Angelus in St. Peter's Square and all the main religious functions that attract a large number of faithful ”He continued.

Rienzi said that if the Vatican events continued as planned, the pope should invite believers to watch the events on television from home.

Codacons said that this policy should also apply to other tourist attractions, such as the Colosseum, and also called on the government to suspend the Rome Marathon, which will be held on March 29th.

Over 11.000 people in China have been confirmed infected with the coronavirus and over 250 people have died.

On January 23, the Chinese government suspended transportation links with Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic.

However, the World Health Organization has stated that there is minimal risk for people outside of China.

“There are now 83 cases in 18 countries [outside of China]. Of these, only 7 had no travel history in China. There was a human-to-human transmission in 3 countries outside of China. One such case is serious and there have been no deaths, "said WHO in a January 30 statement.

WHO said it did not recommend any travel or trade restrictions based on currently available information and warned against "actions promoting stigma or discrimination".