Vatican to administer COVID vaccine to employees this month

By Associated Press

Jan 3, 2021

|Associated Press

Vatican to administer COVID vaccine to employees this month — A health care worker at Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center in Glendale, Calif., draws the COVID-19 vaccine from a vial Dec. 17, 2020. (Credit: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters via CNS.)

ROME — The Vatican says it expects to start administering COVID-19 vaccinations in mid-January.

A statement on Saturday says vaccines, “enough to cover the needs of the Holy See and of Vatican City State.”

The brief statement didn’t say if 84-year-old Pope Francis would be getting the vaccine. But it specified priority would go to Vatican health and security workers, to the elderly and to “the personnel most frequently in contact with the public.” Some 450 people, including the Swiss Guards, reside in Vatican City, while many others work in its offices, museums and other facilities.

Vatican City has registered at least 27 confirmed cases of coronavirus. Some cases last fall included Swiss Guards, who generally attend events with the pope.