MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's bishops said Friday the Vatican had suspended a mission to investigate clerical abuse in Mexico due to the spreading coronavirus in Italy and most recently the Vatican.

The Mexican Episcopal Conference said in a statement the Vatican had suspended all foreign activities after registering its first positive test. The Vatican announced no such ban publicly and the Vatican spokesman didn't immediately return messages seeking comment.

The mission to Mexico, which was announced Monday, was known to have alarmed some in the Mexican hierarchy. This week, the Vatican ambassador to Mexico, Archbishop Franco Coppola, revealed that the Vatican had been investigating four Mexican bishops since May for allegedly having covered up or mishandled abuse cases.

The Vatican's two leading sex crimes investigators, Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, were to have been in Mexico City March 20-27. No new date for their mission was announced.

They were expected to meet abuse victims, bishops and leaders of religious orders.

The two prelates were the same Vatican officials who went to Chile in 2018 to investigate one case and returned with 2,600 pages of statements from more than 60 victims. Their investigation led Pope Francis to ask for forgiveness and approve new measures to hold bishops accountable for covering up abuse.

Mexico, which has the second highest number of Catholics in the world, has been accumulating cases of abuse and cover-ups for years.

In comments to The Associated Press on Friday, Coppola said the suspension was due to the “health emergency in Italy."

“All those infected in Mexico recently traveled to Italy," he noted.

An email account set up to receive reports of clerical abuse in Coppola's nunciature will continue functioning for those who wanted to communicate with the Vatican's representatives, the bishops said.