Care homes face devastating results of losing England's Covid jab 'lottery'

Once Sussex home lost seven of 24 residents to the virus while it waited for vaccinations

A short two-mile drive past the creeks of Chichester Harbour is all that separates the Pinewood nursing home in Chidham from a similar facility in a neighbouring village. But their experiences of the campaign to vaccinate the most vulnerable could not have been more different. The two homes exemplify what has become a postcode lottery in parts of England in which the winners gain immunity from Covid and the losers are left without protection from the deadly disease.

Lawrence Marsh, the owner of Pinewood, which sits on the far western edge of West Sussex, had been expecting his residents to receive their jabs before Christmas after the government's vaccination experts made care home residents and staff the top priority. But the doses did not come and on 6 January the news he had feared arrived: a positive Covid test in the home. The virus spread predictably fast and 14 of the 24 residents have now tested positive and seven have died. Others remain seriously ill and Marsh is worried the worst may not be over.