The pope and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth became the latest high-profile figures to join the global vaccination campaign against the coronavirus.

More than 1.9 million people worldwide have now died from the virus, with new variants adding to soaring cases and prompting the re-introduction of restrictions on movement across the globe — even as with mass inoculation drives underway.

Pope Francis urged people to get the vaccination saying he would be inoculated against the virus himself next week when the Vatican begins its campaign and denouncing opposition to the jab.

“There is a suicidal denial which I cannot explain, but today we have to get vaccinated,” the pontiff tells Canale 5 in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip received their Covid-19 vaccinations on Saturday, said Buckingham Palace.

A source told the Press Association News Agency that the queen, 94, and Philip, 99, were given the injections by a royal household doctor at Windsor Castle.