The Pope took to Rome's eerily deserted streets after delivering a blessing to a virtually empty St Peter's Square as Italy remains deep in the midst of coronavirus hell.
The country's case total rose to an alarming 24,747 today while 368 extra deaths took the number of victims to 1,809. Most of the cases came in the Lombardy region, with the towns Bergamo and Brescia especially badly hit, amid fears the virus could wreak even more havoc if there was a mass outbreak in the much larger nearby city Milan.
But down in Rome, Pope Francis defied Italian government advice to stay indoors and walked to church through deserted streets to pray for the end of coronavirus.
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