Black and Asian people ‘are up to twice as likely to catch Covid’

BLACK people are twice as likely to become infected with Covid-19 as white people, a report says.

And the risk for those of Asian ethnicities is one-and-a-half times greater than for whites, shows the analysis of 50 studies that involved 18million people in the UK and US.

‘Our findings suggest that the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on black and Asian communities is mainly attributable to increased risk of infection in these communities,’ said author Prof Manish Pareek, of the University of Leicester.

He added explanations may include that black and Asian people are more likely than the white population to live in larger households comprised of multiple generations. They may also be more likely to live in overcrowded conditions and to be employed in front-line roles ‘where working from home is not an option’.

Asian people with the virus may be twice as likely to be admitted to intensive care than white people, the report says. There is also some evidence that they have a higher risk of death – but the researchers cautioned that the studies they used had not yet been peer-reviewed. They did not find an increased risk of death or ICU admission for black people.

The data should be of ‘importance to policymakers’, the team said.

But they said decisions on whether people from black and Asian backgrounds should be on a vaccine priority list were a matter for the government and the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation.

‘I don’t think we’re necessarily suggesting ethnic minorities should be a priority group,’ Prof Pareek said. ‘The government needs to make those difficult decisions.’