The Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the United Kingdom has reported that more black people are likely to die of the coronavirus pandemic compared to whites and other races.
The office noted that this was due not only to pre-existing differences in communities’ wealth, health, education and living arrangements. It discovered that black people were almost twice as likely as white people to die a COVID-19-related death. ONS said:
These results show that the difference between ethnic groups in Covid-19 mortality is partly a result of socio-economic disadvantage and other circumstances, but a remaining part of the difference has not yet been explained.
These reports come after the Guardian research last month confirmed suspicions that minority groups faced the greatest risk from the coronavirus and showed that areas with high ethnic minority populations in England and Wales tended to have higher mortality rates in the pandemic.
The deputy director of the Runnymede Trust, a race equality thinktank, Zubaida Haque, described the findings as alarming adding that COVID-19 taskforces cannot afford to ignore the significance of racial discrimination and racial inequalities.
More: The Guardian