Thousands turn out to mourn Serbia's Patriarch, despite COVID-19 surge

Mourners pay their respect by the casket of Serbia's late Patriarch Irinej, who died of coronavirus infection, during funeral rites at Belgrade's St. Sava temple, in Belgrade, Serbia, November 21, 2020. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Several thousand worshippers and clergy, some without face masks, filed steadily into a Belgrade church on Saturday to pay their respects to Patriarch Irinej, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who died aged 90 after contracting COVID-19.

Irinej tested positive for the coronavirus on Nov. 4 and died on Friday, prompting the Serbian government to declare three days of national mourning in the predominantly Orthodox Christian country.