By ADAMU BEZHE
The United Kingdom Office of National Statistics (ONS) said on Friday that individuals from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities are more likely to die after contracting COVID-19 than their white counterparts.
Nick Stripe, ONS Head of Life Events said in a statement that the agency’s analysis continued to show that people from a black ethnic background are at a greater risk of death involving COVID-19 than all other ethnic groups.
A study of Coronavirus mortality rates from March 2 to May 15 indicated that black males were 3.3 times more likely to die after contracting the disease than white males of the same age, and the rate for black females of the same age was 2.4 times greater than for white females. “The risk for black males has been more than three times higher than white males and nearly two and a half times higher for black females than white”.
Stripe said after adjusting for all variables, the ONS found that black males were twice as likely to die after contracting COVID-19, than white males, and black women were 1.4 times more likely to die than their white counterparts.
As of Thursday, more than 300,000 cases of COVID-19 have been registered in the U.K. since the outbreak. A total of 1,218 new positive tests were reported over the preceding 24 hours, a slight rise from the 1,115 new cases confirmed the day before. The Department of Health and Social Care has so far confirmed 42,288 Coronavirus disease-related deaths.
