The boss of one of the country’s biggest care home providers has called for residents and staff to be tested each week for coronavirus.

Sam Monaghan, chief executive of MHA, said the relaxation of lockdown measures meant staff were more susceptible to picking up the virus and spreading it among residents.

MHA has two care homes on Teesside, Reuben Manor, in Yarm Road, Eaglescliffe, which has 83 places and Montpellier Manor, in Strait Lane, Stainton, Middlesbrough, which has 85 places.

Both provide residential accommodation and dementia care for elderly patients.

Mr Monaghan said: “If you have got people walking around the home, interacting with others, then you are going to have that real risk of continuing to bring the infection in.

“What we’re saying is either [test] once a week or at least once a fortnight. Some of the research that has been done would suggest that weekly would be most the effective way.”

The Government has been accused of being slow to react to the spread of the virus in the care home sector while there have also been frequent complaints about the lack of personal protective equipment for staff.

Between April 10 and May 1 there were 74 deaths in Teesside care homes, a third of which involved coronavirus, according to figures from the Care Quality Commission.

Mr Monaghan added: “Just two weeks ago we had a home where there had been no infections throughout the whole of the pandemic.

“We had a case develop in one of our residents, they started to show symptoms, they were tested and found to be positive.

“None of the residents had been in or out of hospital, there was no other way that it could have come in and yet none of the staff were presenting any symptoms and at that point it was before the whole home-testing procedure was in.

“There was a real reluctance to test staff, they were going to test the residents but they were not going to test the staff.

“But that was the most highly likely way the infection could have come into the home.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has previously pledged to test every care home resident and staff member in England for coronavirus by early June.