Coronavirus: Black people in the UK at far greater risk from Covid-19

Scientists are yet to fully understand why black and Asian people are particularly vulnerable

The UK's coronavirus death toll soared passed that of Italy on Tuesday, making it the worst hit country in Europe with more than 32,000 deaths. Bloomberg

Black people are four times more likely to die than white people from coronavirus in the UK, a new study has found,

The Office for National Statistics report confirms earlier analysis that Covid-19 appears to target people of certain ethnicity.

Scientists are still struggling to discover why the virus might be particularly fatal in some ethnicities, particularly black and Asian.

“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,” the report said.

The new analysis published today found black women are more likely to die by a factor of 4.3 and black men by 4.2 after adjusting for age compared to Caucasian people.

It also found that other ethnic minorities have a heightened risk of dying over White British.

Those with Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds were found to be 3.6 times more likely to die in men and 3.4 in women.

While among people with Indian ethnicity, women were 2.7 times more likely to die and men 2.4.

It was found that among the Chinese ethnic group the heightened risk for men was 1.9 and 1.2 for women.

The analysis includes almost 11,000 deaths involving Covid-19 that occurred between 2 March and 10 April.

The proportion of deaths occurring among those of White ethnicity was 84 per cent while the largest minority ethnic group was Black with 6 per cent.

Fatalities from coronavirus were also found to be twice as high in the poorest parts of Britain, where a large number of ethnic minorities live, compared to those in the wealthiest areas.