The government has failed to answer for "significant inadequacy" in the number of coronavirus tests during outbreaks in care homes, according to every Merseyside MP.
The region has already seen coronavirus claim a number of care home residents, including nine people in Oak Springs Care home in Liverpool.
Now its politicians have signed a blistering joint letter criticising the lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) available to high risk groups and what they say is a "laissez faire" approach to enforcing lockdown rules on non-essential businesses.
It accuses the government's financial support packages of remaining "elusive and inaccessible" for many self employed people and businesses, and suggests individuals have been targeted for breaching lockdown more than big businesses.
Signed by 16 MPs, the letter says: "The impact of the current crisis cannot be underestimated both in relation to the short and long term implications on the social and economic fabric in Merseyside, especially given how hard hitting it has been for our public services after a decade of austerity and retrenchment.
"A number of MPs have been raising these issues in the Cabinet Office daily morning calls and with the relevant Departments but have not had real feedback nor has there been any sustained improvement."
Referring to problems with testing, it says: "There continues to be a significant inadequacy of testing right across the health and social care system, even where outbreaks have occurred in some care homes.
"The criteria for access to testing remains oblique and therefore not transparent. The accessibility to testing continues to be piecemeal.
"It is difficult to establish the numbers of people who have been tested against the Government's planned rollout.
"In addition, health and social care staff do not have access to routine testing. There is also insufficient tracing and this is vital if the use of testing is to be effective."
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has been criticised for suggesting NHS workers needed to treat PPE as a "precious resource."
The letter said: "There appears to be both a shortage of PPE and inconsistency in access to new stocks for individual organisations, in addition to a broader inconsistency of access with de facto rationing occurring.
Alison McGovern, MP for Wirral South, shared the letter on Twitter and said: "Merseyside MPs have written collectively to Penny Mordaunt - Paymaster General who is leading on links with MPs - on a number of areas where we need urgent Covid-19 action.
"Not least on PPE for *all* workers caring for those affected, not just in hospitals, and also testing."
Today marked Liverpool's deadliest day to date in the coronavirus crisis, with 25 new deaths recorded in the city's hospitals taking the total to 154.
There were 12 further deaths in Wirral's Arrowe Park Hospital, 11 more across St Helens and Whiston hospitals and three more across Southport and Ormskirk hospitals.
