Pope Francis and Pope emeritus Benedict XVI have both received their second and final dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Pope Francis and Benedict had received the first dose of the vaccine last month, as confirmed by Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office.

Vatican residents and employees and their families are receiving their doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine in the atrium of the Paul VI Hall.

Unlike other vaccines, the Pfizer jab was not developed or produced  using cell-lines derived from aborted foetuses, although it was tested on such a line.

Vatican City State, the world’s smallest independent nation-state, has a population of around 800 people. But together with the Holy See, the sovereign entity that predates it, it employs more than 4,000 people.

Vatican journalists traveling with Pope Francis on his trip to Iraq March 5-8 are required to get the vaccination against COVID-19.