Black people are up to four times more likely to die with COVID-19 than their white counterparts, the Office for National Statistics has found.

New analysis published on Thursday showed 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.

Other ethnic minorities have a heightened risk, too.

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.

For the Chinese ethnic group, the heightened risk for men was 1.9 and 1.2 for women.

Fatalities from coronavirus were also found to be twice as high in the most deprived parts of the UK, where those from ethnic minority backgrounds mainly reside, compared with the least deprived.

Underlying health conditions prevalent in those communities play a role in the disproportionate number of deaths, the ONS said.

“There’s really a strong social gradient to mortality rates generally, and even more for COVID,” explained the body’s head of health analysis, Nick Stripe.

However he cautioned that when adjusting for other factors – such as household composition, area deprivation, and any health or disability factors – the odds of death involving COVID-19 were “substantially reduced” for all ethnic groups relative to white people.

The demographic levels it measures against also come from the last census in 2011, which is held every ten years, so may not accurately reflect current levels.

Source: Sky News