Pope's personal doctor dies from coronavirus 'complications', aged 78, after pontiff revealed he will get vaccine as early as next week
Pope Francis' personal doctor has died from Covid complications aged 78.
Fabrizio Soccorsi, who was chosen as the pontiff's personal medic in 2015, was hospitalised on Boxing Day for a previous oncological disease.
It is not known when he was last in close contact with the Pope before his death on Saturday.
Pope Francis' personal doctor Fabrizio Soccorsi has died from Covid complications aged 78 (pictured together)
It comes as Pope Francis revealed he plans to have the Covid-19 vaccination next week when the Vatican begins its roll-out of the jabs.
The city state is set to shortly launch its own vaccination campaign and expects to receive enough doses to inoculate all 450 residents and workers.
Ultra-cold fridges have been brought into store the doses developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
The Pope, 84, confirmed he will be among those given a dose.
Pope Francis says he is going to be given his dose of the Covid 19 vaccine as early as next week
He told TV station Canale 5: 'I believe that ethically everyone should take the vaccine.
'It is an ethical choice because you are gambling with your health, with your life, but you are also gambling with the lives of others.'
'Next week we will start doing it here, in the Vatican, and I have booked myself in. It must be done.
There is a suicidal denial which I cannot explain, but today we have to get vaccinated.'
Vatican City is said to be receiving 450 doses of the vaccine, enough for all of its residents and workers
Others first in line at Vatican City, the world's smallest independent country in the world, to be given the shot will be health and public safety personnel, the elderly and staff in frequent contact with the public.
Pope Francis had part of one lung removed when he was a young man in his native Argentina, making him potentially vulnerable to the disease.
The Pontiff's announcement followed one from Buckingham Palace confirming the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have received the vaccine.
It is believed the 94-year-old monarch decided the information should be allowed to be made public but refused to say if they had taken the jab by Oxford University/AstraZeneca or Pfizer/BioNTech.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: 'The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have today received Covid-19 vaccinations.'