A Sheffield carer who recently tested positive for having coronavirus antibodies fears she may have unknowingly spread the disease while working across four different care homes.
Alison Taylor has had no symptoms of Covid-19, however she tested positive for antibodies after she was checked twice for the disease in the past two weeks.
This suggests that the 51-year-old carer had coronavirus at some point.
Ms Taylor said she feels some "guilt" that she may have unknowingly spread the disease while working as a healthcare assistant and when she visited her 82-year-old mother, who later died with suspected Covid-19.
"I find it really hard to think that I might have passed it to care homes, to residents, to my family," Ms Taylor told BBC News.
"I could be responsible for other people's deaths without knowing."
Ms Taylor, who is employed by an agency, worked at four different homes before regular testing was introduced for care workers who are asymptomatic.
She said: "I've continued working throughout with no symptoms so I don't know if I've passed it on or not.
"I'm really uncomfortable that I could have gone into care homes, worked with however many residents and staff without knowing that I've got Covid."
MPs recently accused the Government of deserting the elderly “entirely” following reports ministers had abandoned their pledge to test all care home residents regularly throughout the summer.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) admitted there had been issues with meeting its July 6 deadline for testing all asymptomatic care home residents, with testing of older people and those with dementia now pushed back two months until September 7, it is understood.
Miss Taylor said: "We need to know that staff are safe and that residents are as safe as they can be.
"If we're not tested and we don't know who's got it, who's had it, it's just going to continue, it's just going to roll on."
It comes after a new study prompted scientists to repeat calls for NHS staff to have regular testing for coronavirus as the data highlighted the proportion of staff who had the disease but showed no symptoms.
The new study found that one in six maternity health workers have had Covid-19.
And one in three of these were completely asymptomatic – meaning they continued to go about their work as usual, potentially passing the virus on to mothers and their new babies.
The authors wrote: “This has significant implications for the risk of occupational transmission of SARS-CoV-2 for both staff and patients in maternity units.
"Regular testing of staff, including asymptomatic staff, should be considered to reduce transmission risk.
“Regular testing and consistent use of PPE are likely to be the cornerstones of pandemic control.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: “We have significantly ramped up our testing capacity, meaning NHS Trusts can now routinely and strategically test asymptomatic frontline staff in appropriate circumstances.
“At every stage we have been guided by the latest scientific evidence and we are following advice from Sage on the appropriate frequency of repeat testing.