In Germany, around 40 people were infected with the new coronavirus after attending a mass in Frankfurt in early May. Six of them were admitted to hospital, according to the DPA news agency, which quotes local health authorities.
This religious service was said to have been celebrated in a Protestant Baptist church on May 10, a few days after the reopening of places of worship in Germany, reports the local newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau.
In the canton of Main-Kinzig-Kreis, on the outskirts of the city, local authorities had already announced Friday the contamination of 16 people who attended "an event in Frankfurt".
Second wave
In a context of a sharp slowdown in the epidemic, Germany, which had 177,850 officially declared cases of new coronaviruses and 8,216 deaths on Saturday, loosened the social restrictions put in place to stem the disease in early May.
In Châlons-en-Champagne, mass resumes in a parking lot
But fears of the second wave remain present in the country, relatively less affected than some of its European neighbors. Earlier today, authorities in the northern state of Lower Saxony announced that seven people had been infected at a restaurant in the town of Leer. About fifty people had to be quarantined.
The question of the opening of religious services is particularly sensitive, beyond Germany. In France, a gathering of 2000 evangelical faithful at the end of February had been the cause of dozens of contaminations all over the country.
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In the United States, President Donald Trump on Friday called on the governors of the United States to authorize the opening of places of worship, which he designated as "essential" at a press conference in the White House.