Source from NCR
Vatican City: — Pope Francis and Pope emeritus Benedict XVI have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, the Vatican confirmed on Thursday January 14, 2021
As per sources director of the Holy See Press Office, has confirmed that as part of the Vatican City State vaccination program to date, the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to Pope Francis and the pope emeritus.”
The second dose of vaccine is expected to receive by pope and Benedict XVI in about three weeks.
Archbishop Georg Gänswein told CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, on Jan. 12 that Benedict XVI would be vaccinated “as soon as the vaccine is available.”
“I will also be vaccinated along with the whole household of the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery,” said Archbishop Gänswein, referring to the Vatican monastery where Benedict XVI has lived since resigning as pope in 2013.
On Jan 13 Vatican began administering vaccinations against COVID-19.
Vatican residents and employees and their families are receiving their doses of the vaccine in the atrium of the Paul VI Audience Hall.
Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, a total of 27 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Vatican City State. Among them were at least 11 members of the Swiss Guard.
Dr. Andrea Arcangeli, head of the Vatican health service, said on Jan. 2 that the Vatican had purchased a low-temperature refrigerator to store the vaccine.
The 84-year-old Pope Francis is generally healthy, though he suffers from sciatica and had eye surgery for cataracts in 2019. When he was young, he had a portion of a lung removed because of an infection.
At his traditional Christmas “Urbi et Orbi” blessing, the pope called for COVID-19 vaccines to be made available to the world’s neediest people.
