When coronavirus arrived in the UK and the country put under lockdown, the message was clear: 'Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.'
Operations were cancelled, patients were discharged from beds, Nightingale hospitals were opened, testing for all patients was introduced - all with the view to ensuring hospitals were not overwhelmed.
Yet in the early stages of the pandemic, another crucial setting did not, it is claimed, receive the same level of focus from central government - care homes.
Until March 12, the government's own official advice stated that 'it remains very unlikely that people receiving care in a care home will become infected'.
Fast-forward two months and the Office for National Statistics is now estimating that 12,500 people have died in care homes with Covid-19 out of a total of 44,000 total deaths to date.
Earlier this week, the ECHO revealed that 20 residents had tragically died from suspected Covid-19 at Paisley Court Care Home in Dovecot, the largest confirmed total of coronavirus deaths at a care home in the region so far.
This is just the latest reminder of the devastating toll that Covid-19 is having on adult social care across the country - with other homes reporting similar outbreaks since the beginning of the epidemic.
By May 15, according to data published by the Care Quality Commission, 371 deaths involving Covid-19 had occurred in care homes in the Liverpool City Region.
But behind these awful figures are families mourning the losses of their loved ones, and care staff facing an unprecedented workload.
"I don't think any care home was prepared for this. Everything was brought in too late."
For care staff, many of whom are on minimum wage, the last few months have been exhausting and the number of deaths they have seen are deeply saddening.
One carer at a Merseyside care home, who asked to remain anonymous, described how coronavirus has devastated their care home.
They claim that staff had no access to PPE until late March and that staff who were self isolating after contracting coronavirus themselves were pressured to come back to work due to staffing shortages.
The carer said that since the beginning of March, roughly half of the residents at the care home have passed away, but due to the lack of testing, it's impossible to know for sure how had Covid-19.
They also said that when tests were made available, there were not enough of them and only a small number of residents were able to be tested.
The carer said: "Experienced staff have said they have never seen this level of deaths all at once. It's been completely overwhelming.
"There was no preparation at all. We did not have access to PPE early enough.
"Members of staff with a temperature were still allowed in with temperatures or with coronavirus symptoms themselves and we were accepting patients back into the home from hospital untested.
"I don't think any care home was prepared for this. Everything was brought in too late.
"If you did ring in sick they would pressure you to come in because they were really short staffed. Some staff who were off self isolating were not getting sick pay.
"I was off for a number of days with Covid-19 and got a call later in the week saying I'd been put on the rota for a shift that weekend when I hadn't even had the full isolation period."
"My dad feels guilty he wasn't with mum over the last few weeks of her life."
"Dad used to visit mum every day at the home. He would arrive in the mid afternoon and take her stuff and then give her tea at around 6/7ish. That was before the lockdown," Stuart Masters, whose mother, Pauline, recently passed away in a care home, recalled.
With care homes banning visitors during lockdown, for many families this has been a very difficult period. Particularly for those who have lost a relative.
Stuart Masters' mum, Pauline, 71, had spent six months at Grace Lodge Care Home in Walton with dementia.
Sadly she passed away from pneumonia on 20th April, having also had breast cancer and recurring chest infections.
Due to strict lockdown conditions, the family were only able to visit one by one before she died.
He said that although the family had been prepared for his mother's death, the pandemic had made grieving difficult.
Stuart told the ECHO: "We had sat down with a doctor back in September who had told us that she would not live for much longer so we had prepared ourselves to an extent.
"My dad feels guilty he wasn't there with mum over the last few weeks of her life.
"There was no indication that coronavirus played a role in mum's death.
"Dad used to phone everyday to see how she was doing when he couldn't come into the home. It was her birthday the week before she died and he spoke to her over loud speaker. "
Only ten people were able to attend Pauline's funeral, in line with government social distancing guidelines.
She could not be buried in her own clothes and there was no church service, just a small graveside gathering where they played Cliff Richard songs off one of their phones, one of Pauline's favourite singers.
Stuart added: "It's not what mum would have wanted. She would have wanted to have been buried in her own clothes. That would have been a big thing for her.
"Dad had a big plan to buy a special outfit for her funeral but he wasn't able to do it.
"But I think we did her proud. Others came and listened from afar. We just have to decide if we want to hold another ceremony when this is all over."
"On testing in care homes, early on I was told no because the government did not have enough tests to do this because they were prioritising hospitals."
Despite creaking council finances, placed under further strain by the pandemic, Liverpool City Council has played a pivotal role in co-ordinating a joint approach to the care home situation by working in tandem with the city's NHS Trusts to pool PPE supplies and expertise.
For example, the council has provided each care home within the Local Authority funding so that care staff can received full pay when self isolating to ensure they don't have to pay a financial price for doing the right thing.
Cllr Paul Brant, cabinet member for Health and Social Care, believes that the situation in care homes is the result of two national policy mistakes: The discharging of patients with coronavirus from hospital back into care homes, and a lack of testing in care homes.
Cllr Brant said: "Care homes were a high risk environment because they have people who are particularly at risk should they contract Covid-19.
"A number of things could have been done to mitigate the situation we are now seeing. We needed to make sure there were no admissions into homes, from the community or from hospitals, who were untested.
"I was asking both locally and nationally for testing of everyone in care homes. Early on I was told no because the government did not have enough tests to do this and because they were prioritising hospitals.
"Dealing with an infectious disease like Covid is a specialist practice. Care home staff were being asked to work at the skill levels of a specialist infectious disease nurse with guidance that was changing quickly. "
"All of these factors have combined together. Care homes have been equally at risk without the same levels of clinical safeguarding as hospitals."
Cllr Brant sees as public inquiry into the handling of the crisis as inevitable and said that the experience serves as a painful reminder of a disjointed and underfunded social care sector.
He added: "It continues to be a matter of disgrace that in our underfunded care sector, which is so important, most staff are only paid minimum wage.
"When carers are exposed to the disease and at heightened risk they deserve status and to be valued which should be reflected by no longer giving them poverty pay.
"This has been the most challenging time of my career, without a doubt."
Back in March Dawn Rogers, Manager of Grovewood Residential Home in Rock Ferry, Wirral, took the decision to move into the care home along with her core members of staff.
The decision to leave their families and move in with their 21 residents represented a huge sacrifice for her and her staff in a bid to stop coronavirus entering the home.
Like many of the other homes which have suffered coronavirus outbreaks, it also has a large number of residents with dementia and other complex health needs.
One of the home's younger carers, Kara Sumner, 21, spent months away from her two year old son to live in with residents in a bid to stop any transmission.
What distinguishes Grovewood is that it has remained Covid free since the beginning of the outbreak.
For Dawn, 44, the decision ultimately came down to the duty of care she felt she owed her residents.
She told the ECHO : "I made the decision to ask staff to move into the home because I have a duty of care to keep our residents safe.
"My staff were fully aware of the devastating affect of coronavirus and the anxiety of bringing it into work but also possibly bringing it back to their households.
"It was quite fearful and challenging. We were aware of what was going on in other countries and other parts of the UK so I started ordering PPE back in February.
"For any care home manager, this has been such an anxious period. You check temperatures multiple times every day.
"It's been the most challenging period of my career, without a doubt."
She has now set up a fundraiser to offer staff a reward for their commitment over the last few months.
On May 7 the team living in the home finally left the home and new members of staff were introduced into the home, which has still remained Covid free.
The team remains vigilant, and Grovewood, as a Covid-free home, has been marked as a priority for testing.
But Dawn clearly feels the pain experienced by other homes that have experienced outbreaks.
She added: "My heart bleeds for them more and more each day. The stories of residents, and in some cases even staff, losing lives to Covid is devastating."
