Patriarch Kirill fell ill with coronavirus for the first time during the pandemic

He is currently in self-isolation and is on bed rest.

Patriarch Kirill has contracted the coronavirus. This was reported by his press service. Upcoming trips and meetings have been cancelled. Probably, this sad circumstance and the diagnosis will not allow the main person of the Russian Orthodox Church to take part in the planned events dedicated to the inclusion of a number of Ukrainian territories and Donbass into Russia.

Coronavirus, as you know, does not ask who and when to get sick. And sometimes it happens quite suddenly and out of time. Naturally, there is a good reason. Moreover, earlier the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church almost never took sick leave and preferred to perform his duties on his feet to the last.

Although in July of this year, for example, he did not go on a visit to the Smolensk Metropolis because of a cold. Then, even in the church environment, there were rumors that it could be just a coronavirus.

But officially, for 2.5 years of the pandemic, the patriarch never got sick with COVID-19. Surprisingly, he held on to the very end. At the same time, not being in complete self-isolation, Kirill was present at all significant church and political events when protocol required it. True, in October 2020, His Holiness was quarantined due to contact with the patient, and he could not even be present in person at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra on the day of memory of St. Sergius of Radonezh.

But later he apologized to the believers for this pass and testified in writing that “the time for my personal quarantine has not yet expired. I thought it impossible to expose all of you to the danger of infection.

Although he himself did not get sick as a result of that fleeting contact. All tests were negative.

Also, one of the first patriarchs made himself vaccinated against COVID-19, and later, as expected, was revaccinated. The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church is 75 years old. And he is in the high-risk age group.

Meanwhile, Cyril always emphasized that “to be vaccinated or not is not at all a doctrinal question. This is a purely medical issue, a matter of personal choice and responsibility of a person, his life experience”, he urged in no case to violate the basic rights of people and the voluntary nature of medical manipulations, – this was the point of view of the patriarch, which he voiced in his sermons.

According to the press service of the Russian Orthodox Church, the condition of the head of the church is quite satisfactory. He is on bed rest.