At least 76 Catholic nuns have tested positive for COVID-19 amid an outbreak at their convent in Germany, church officials said Tuesday.
The Sisters of Saint Francis of the Martyr St. George in Thuine detected the first cases of the coronavirus last week, prompting local health authorities to place the entire monastery under quarantine.
So far, the cases have been mild, said the convent’s Mother Superior.
“We are grateful that so far nobody is in the hospital,” Sister Maria Cordis Reiker, told the Associated Press.
The tests of a further 85 nuns have come back negative.
Officials were still awaiting the results of 160 non-clerical employees of the monastery, including kitchen staffers and nurses working at its old age home.
The nuns also run several schools, including a boys’ boarding school.
Most Catholic nuns in Germany are elderly women, according to the AP, placing them more at risk of serious illness from the virus.
Overall in Germany, 13,604 new cases of COVID-19 and 388 deaths were reported on Tuesday, according to the country’s national disease control center.
Virus cases among young people are decreasing in Germany, but the nation has seen a spike in infections among it’s older population, the center said.
With Post wires