Pope Francis takes first dose of covid19 vaccine

    Pope Francis has taken a first dose of vaccine against coronavirus, the Vatican has announced.

      The 84-year-old pope and the 93-year-old former pope, got their jabs on Thursday as part of a Vatican vaccination programme that began the previous day. Both men are vulnerable to contracting the virus because of their age. Francis is perhaps more at risk because part of one of his lungs was removed following an illness when he was a young man in his native Argentina. Benedict is frail and suffering from a number of ailments related to old age, such as arthritis.

       There have been fewer than 30 cases of coronavirus in the Vatican City, most of them among the Swiss Guard, who live in a communal barracks.