Pope Francis prays alone in Saint Peter's square during coronavirus pandemic

Pope Francis on Friday stood alone in Saint Peter's square to bless Catholics around world suffering from coronavirus outbreak. In a never seen before incident, Pope performed rarely recited ‘Urbi et Orbi’ blessing from steps of basilica to an empty square, dressing millions via television, rio and social media. As per reports, blessing which translates as 'To City (Rome) and World', is usually performed on three occasions, when a pope is elected, and each year at Christmas and Easter. 

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pope speaks of armed conflict around globe before reciting blessing, however, on Friday he talked about global coronavirus pandemic that has taken world by storm. Pope also saluted essential service providers in time of crisis like se. He thanked medical staff, supermarket employees, police forces, volunteers, nuns and priests. On Friday, a crucifix was placed in front of Saint Peter’s, which pope borrowed during a visit to one of churches in city and it is believed that crucifix h saved Rome from plague in 16th century.

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Coronavirus outbreak

COVID-19 has claimed more than 30,800 lives across world and has infected more than 6,64,000 people globally since it first broke out in December 2019. China was most affected country until last week before Italy and Spain surpassed it to record most number of deaths anywhere in world due to COVID-19. virus is believed to have originated from a seafood market in China's Wuhan city, epicentre of disease, where animals were reportedly being tred illegally. 

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United States, France and Iran have logged in more than 2,000 deaths each with a combined tally of 7,060 as of March 28. United Kingdom has become seventh country to cross 1,000 benchmark in terms of number of deaths recorded due to virus outbreak. Experts believe that pandemic could easily claim over 1.8 million lives globally by end of year. 

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Le Im Credit: AP