New Jersey police have found 17 bodies piled in a nursing home's tiny morgue, after an anonymous tip that a body was being stored in a shed outside amid the coronavirus pandemic.

By the time police arrived at Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center, in Andover, on Monday night, the body had been removed from the shed.

But a search around the facility - which is one of the state's largest residential care homes - revealed 17 corpses had been stacked in a small morgue designed to hold no more than four.

The home, which has room for 700 beds, has suffered 68 deaths in recent weeks, including two nurses.

Of those who died, 26 have tested positive for the coronavirus. The cause of dearth of the others is not known, and it is possible more may also have been killed by the disease.

Police were called to the largest nursing home in New Jersey after reports of a body being left outside in a shed. In the end 17 bodies were found and moved to this refrigerated truck

'They were just overwhelmed by the amount of people who were expiring,' Andover police chief Eric C. Danielson told the New York Times.

Thirteen of the discovered bodies were moved to a refrigerated truck outside a hospital in the nearby town of Newton. A funeral home picked up the other four.

Seventy-six patients who are still housed at the facility have tested positive for coronavirus, and 41 members of staff are out sick with it.

A lack of personal protective equipment and tests for residents and staff have allowed deaths to continue mounting at nursing homes across the country, say experts.

Federal officials ordered residential homes in mid-March to ban visitors, stop group activities and screen workers for respiratory symptoms on every shift.

Like many nursing homes across the country there has been a lack of testing for coronavirus and PPE for staff at the Andover Subacute home to wear

The extent of the outbreak at Andover has outraged family members, who have demanded answers from congress.

'The challenge we're having with all of these nursing homes, is once it spreads, it's like a wildfire,' said Representative Josh Gottheimer. 'It's very hard to stop it.'

Family members have also started a group on Facebook.

'I feel so helpless. I feel like everyone is going to get Covid. What do we do?', one relative wrote.

New Jersey Governor Philip D Murphy, pictured, has said that once the pandemic is over, the state will conduct a proper investigation into what went wrong

'It's scary for everybody — for the residents and for the staff,' Gottheimer said. 'What is surprising to me is how many are dying in house, versus the hospital.'

Gottheimer, a Democrat, told the Times that he had thought about bringing in FEMA or even medics with the National Guard.

New Jersey's Department of Health had sent 3,200 surgical masks, 1,400 N95 masks and 10,000 gloves to the nursing home and sick patients are being quarantined on separate floors.

One patient who died three weeks ago was 84-year-old Lily Repasch.

Her three daughters and her son used to visit regularly but after visitors were barred from coming into the home due to state restrictions, there was no way for them to reach their mother, who had dementia.

There have been at least 26 deaths from the virus in recent weeks at the home, pictured

'Her death was inevitable,' said daughter Lee Repasch to the Times. 'But she was a vulnerable woman with dementia. It was inevitable, but it didn't need to be like this.'

New Jersey Governor Philip D Murphy has said that once the pandemic is over, the state will conduct a proper investigation into what went wrong although he did appear to be surprised at the high number of deaths.

'It's pretty clear that a big weakness in the system, and in reality, is long-term care facilities,' he said. 'I don't know if I'm shocked by any means.'

In New Jersey alone, at least 6,815 patients in long-term care facilities are believed to be infected with coronavirus, with most of the state's homes reporting at least one case.

On Wednesday, the state announced there were a further 351 coronavirus-related deaths with at least 45 of them coming from the residents of care homes.

In total, the state has recorded 71,030 coronavirus cases so far, and 3,156 deaths.