Pope Francis, who has been battling pneumonia for more than five weeks, will be discharged from hospital on Sunday but will need a further two months of rest at the Vatican, the head of his medical team said on Saturday.
Francis, 88, was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on February 14 with a severe respiratory infection that became the most serious health crisis of his 12-year papacy.
While Francis will return to the Vatican on Sunday, his doctors said it would take “a lot of time” for his aging body to fully heal.
They said they had prescribed the pope two months of repose, and had advised him against taking any meetings with large groups, or that require special effort.
“The recommendation for a period of convalescence of at least two months is very important,” Sergio Alfieri, head of the pope’s medical team, told the press conference.
Francis, who was fighting double pneumonia, suffered four acute attacks of what the Vatican called “respiratory crises” during his time in hospital.
Alfieri said that two of the crises had been critical, with the pope “in danger of his life”.
The pontiff no longer has pneumonia, but is also not completely healed from a “complex” infection involving several microorganisms, said the doctor.
Read more: Pope Francis remains stable, chest scan confirms improvements
Alfieri emphasized that while Francis had used non-invasive ventilation through a mask over his mouth and nose to help breathe, the pope had never been intubated during his stay in hospital.
One senior cardinal had said on Friday that the pope would need to “relearn to speak” after battling a respiratory infection for so long.
“It will take time before his voice returns to what it was before,” said Alfieri.
The doctor said the pope, who had gained some weight in recent years after using a wheelchair for knee and back pain, has now lost some weight.
“We haven’t weighed him, but he has lost weight, surely,” said Alfieri. “But, let’s say, he had some ‘in reserve,’ so it doesn’t worry us,” he added.
