Kiev authorities seal off Orthodox monastery that became coronavirus hotspot

Ukrainian law enforcement officers stand guard at the entrance of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra monastery, where multiple cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have been confirmed, in Kiev, Ukraine April 13, 2020. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

KIEV (Reuters) - Authorities in Kiev sealed off a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery on Monday after reporting that two of its members had died and more than 90 had contracted the coronavirus, accounting for around a fifth of the Ukrainian capital's cases.

The city administration has dispatched doctors and mobile X-ray machines to the sprawling Kiev Pechersk Lavra complex, the headquarters of the Russian-backed wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church known as the Moscow Patriarchate.