Blacks in the UK are four times more likely to die than Covid-19 than whites, ONS data show

NHS workers take a patient from an ambulance at St Thomas' Hospital in London.
A report from the Office for National Statistics she found that black women are 4.3 times more likely to die with Covid-19 than white women, while black men are 4.2 times more likely to die.

The Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian and mixed ethnic peoples also had a “statistically significant risk of death risk,” according to the report.

The disparities are “in part the result of socioeconomic disadvantages and other circumstances, but a remaining part of the difference has not yet been explained,” said the study.

Even after considering age, demographic factors and measures of health problems reported by themselves, blacks were still almost twice as likely to die of Covid-19 than whites.

While the report has not been able to clearly outline all the factors behind the trend, its conclusions make clear that the pandemic – often referred to as a “great equalizer” – is far from being.

“There is an urgent need to investigate the causes of this disproportionality,” said UK shadow justice secretary David Lammy on Thursday, calling the results “frightening”.

“Action must be taken to protect black men and women, as well as people from all backgrounds, from the virus,” he added.

The data covers the period until 10 April. His figures are supported by previous studies, which also found that black people in the UK are dying at a much higher rate than their white peers.

An analysis conducted by the think tank Institute of Tax Studies found out last week people of African black origin were 3.7 times more likely to die in hospital from illness compared to whites.

The study said that excess deaths cannot be explained by geographic and demographic differences alone – nor is it justified by non-hospital deaths.

And discoveries also ring similar reports in the United States, where African Americans died from a disproportionately high rate of Covid-19.

In Chicago, 72% of the people who died were black, officials said in April, although African Americans represent only 30% of the city’s population. In Louisiana, African Americans represent 32% of the population, but account for about 70% of the deaths.

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The UK has the highest coronavirus deaths in Europe, announcing Wednesday that over 30,000 people have died since the outbreak.

CNN’s Zamira Rahim, Vasco Cotovio and Sharon Braithwaite contributed to the report.

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