A care home director has described the panic on the "forgotten front line" with up to 1,000 'unrecorded' elderly residents feared dead from coronavirus across Britain.
Nicola Roberts released an emotional video as campaigners slammed the Government's response to the pandemic in care homes as "criminal".
The UK's official coronavirus death toll soared above 10,000 yesterday after 657 more deaths were reported in England, as well as 24 in Scotland, 18 in Wales and 11 in Northern Ireland.
But care home deaths are not being recorded as part of those figures released by Department for Health and Social Care.
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Ms Roberts oversees three care homes in Sheffield as director of Palms Row Healthcare, where eight residents have died and 39 people - including workers - have been diagnosed with the killer bug.
A severe lack of proper protective equipment has led experts to warn of a potential further rise in deaths in the health care system - causing great anxiety.
At one of Ms Roberts' facilities, Newfield Nursing Home, staff have been forced to devote an entire floor to caring for virus patients.
Speaking on a video diary for Sky News she described the "panic, unrest, apprehension, concern" as the situation escalates.
"What does this mean? Where is it going to take us? How are we going to cope?"
She said many of her staff are "fretting" and she found it difficult to put into words "how difficult it is on the front line".
"We’ve never been faced with anything like this," she added.
Ms Roberts said she hoped "changes" would be made after what has been seen over just a few weeks as the virus rampages through Britain and the world.
Labour MP Peter Kyle has called for a new Cabinet role focusing on social care and agreed the "crisis unfolding in our care homes is a crime".
He claimed the horrors being suffered in care due to the pandemic "are being swept under the carpet" by Westminster.
He compared the situation to if more than a dozen kids died in a nursery school, which would see the country grind to a halt.
But the same is happening at multiple care homes and "life rattles on as if nothing happened".
Mr Kyle, who represents Hove, said a new cabinet role, even if temporary, would potentially bring about a change to the system, stopping staff moving between multiple sites and spreading the virus.
While he also wants tests for staff.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is now releasing the number of deaths in care homes but these are based on death certificates which are not readily available.
And while the ONS confirmed 20 deaths in care homes up to the last week of March, industry bosses estimate the figure to be around 1,000.
Newfield nurse Laura Hibberd, meanwhile, said it's a "daily battle" with PPE limited and claims such equipment should be "readily available" because the outbreak "isn't a surprise".
Care England claims 50 per cent of care homes have virus cases, though the Government's chief medical officer Chris Witty last week put the figure at just 9 per cent.
The industry body's CEO Professor Martin Green said all care residents are high risk because they have "four, five, six" underlying health issues.
He said a bigger supply of PPE would make a massive difference.
According to reports, a care home in Yorkshire has seen 13 residents die, one in Northamptonshire has lost 11 and another in Luton 15 - while three carers have died in the last two weeks.
With one carer reportedly left no option to wear a bag over her head due to a lack of masks, trade union Unison has sent a file of complaints regarding insufficient supply of PPE to the Government.
Prof Green warns some GPs are not prepared to visit care homes, leaving the elderly abandoned to the virus.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock yesterday vowed to ramp up the level of testing for care staff, calling it an "area of incredibly high importance".
“One of the things we have succeeded in doing as a country during this crisis is recognising that our care staff are on the front line just as much as our NHS staff are," he said.
