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| - The number of confirmed coronavirus cases at an Orthodox monastery in central Kiev has jumped to 30, Ukrainian authorities said on Thursday. Metropolitan Pavel, the father-superior of the monastery, in March urged believers to "hurry to church and hug each other" despite government advice to move church services online. On Monday in a video released by Ukrainian media he apparently reversed his position, calling the novel coronavirus "the plague of the 21st century". More than 250 people live in the 11th century Orthodox shrine, according to officials. "Twenty-six more cases were recorded in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra," in addition to the four announced on Monday, Kiev mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said. "We are not angels, we have the right to get ill too," Pavel said in the video. Services are now held behind closed doors without parishioners but streamed online. The superior of another Orthodox monastery in Kiev announced on his Facebook page on Thursday that he had tested positive for COVID-19. "I don't know where I got it," said Archbishop Iona Cherepanov, head of the Trinity monastery of St. Jonas. "With the amount of contacts that I have, it's not surprising." Both monasteries are part of the Orthodox church loyal to the Moscow Patriarch, rather than Ukraine's new independent Church. Klitschko warned that public Easter celebrations on April 19 may "sharply worsen" the spread of COVID-19 and "hundreds of new patients" may appear. The national post has announced free delivery of traditional Easter cakes to Ukrainians. Ukraine has confirmed 1,892 cases of COVID-19 and 57 deaths. os/ma/har
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