A third of care homes have been told they will receive the Covid vaccine in the next 10 days.

Meon Valley MP, Flick Drummond, and her team, called at all of the 32 care homes in the constituency to find out how the vaccine rollout was progressing on the first day it was handed to GP surgeries.

Of the 32 homes, 24 responded and 12 said they would receive the jabs for residents and carers by 17th January or sooner.

Two said they expected their vaccines towards the end of the month and in February respectively, while the other 10 had not received a date.

Staff at some homes have already been vaccinated.

Flick said: “The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has only today been rolled out to GPs so this is an encouraging start to the programme here in the Meon Valley for this most vulnerable category,”

“It is vitally important we get residents in care homes and their staff vaccinated as quickly as possible.

"This is an enormous logistical task but absolutely vital in saving lives and lowering infection rates.”