Pochaiv mayor:COVID-19 outbreak began not in Lavra but among city residents

Pochaiv mayor Vasily Boyko speaking about the real situation with coronavirus in the city. Photo: a video screenshot from the «Святині України» YouTube channel

The head of the Pochaiv City Council Vasily Boyko spoke about the real situation with coronavirus in the region, emphasizing that the information published in the media about the Holy Dormition Pochaiv Lavra as a focal point for the spread of infection does not correspond to reality. He said this in a comment for the media platform «Файне місто».

According to Boyko, there really are priests in Pochaiv with tested positive for COVID-19, but they all live in the city and are not monks of the monastery.

“These priests are not people who intentionally spread the virus,” he emphasized. “On the contrary, they got infected from parishioners, those people who had been working abroad, came here, were not quarantined and self-isolated. Consequently, in such a way this infection came to us in Pochaiv.”

The mayor of Pochaiv noted that there is no official information on the detection of the coronavirus with the monks of the Pochaiv Lavra and its abbot, which is also reported by some media outlets, and “no medical request confirmed this”: “As far as I know, the abbot is in the monastery. The monastery is closed for visitors and residents of Pochaiv, and generally for all but the monks. The service is held behind closed doors.”

“The outbreak of the coronavirus did not start in the Lavra; the outbreak began among the residents of Pochaiv. There was no outbreak in the Lavra,” he stressed, urging “not to make politics out of religion”.

Also, in his opinion, there is no reason to suspect the clergy are trying to hide their condition since those who have some symptoms of the disease themselves go to medical institutions and undergo testing.

As reported, earlier local authorities placed Pochaiv on lockdown due to the coronavirus. The National Police called this decision illegal because those who took it did not have such authority. On April 21, against the background of provocative and unconfirmed allegations against the Holy Dormition Pochaiv Lavra and the UOC of spreading the coronavirus, the monastery was quarantined.

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