The community in Newport that has been hit hardest by the Covid pandemic
FIVE minutes from Newport city centre, a short walk along Commercial Street and onto the adjoining Commercial Road, is Pillgwenlly – or Pill, as it’s known by locals.
Ask anyone in Newport, and they will have lots to say about Pill. How close the community is, how multicultural and diverse it is, and how proud people are to be from the area.
But in the last two weeks, there is one topic people keep coming back to – how badly Pill has suffered from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Though it may only be a fiveminute walk from the city centre, in terms of coronavirus related deaths, the two areas are miles apart.
According to recently published figures, Pill has seen 21 deaths involving Covid-19 since March. In the Stow Hill area, which covers the city centre, that figure stands at six.
Pill is the worst hit area of Newport in terms of coronavirus related deaths, closely followed by Rogerstone (20) and Victoria and Somerton (15).
“I’ve known people directly that it [the virus] has killed in Pill. It really has been a dreadful time,” said Omar Ali, who represented the Pill ward as a councillor between 2013 and 2017.
Mr Ali said the fact Pill is such a diverse area, home to so many people from different ethnic backgrounds, may have exacerbated the impact caused by the virus.
“This virus for whatever reason has hit the BME community much more than others,” said Mr Ali, 53, who works as a taxi driver.
Pill is the most ethnically diverse ward within Newport. In the most recent census, published in 2011, the ethnic minority population stood at 44.8%. This compares with 13% for Newport as a whole, and just 6.8% for Wales.
However, Mr Ali believes this figure is now much higher, with an influx in recent years of people from Syria and Eritrea seeking refuge.
In recent weeks, it has been reported that deaths within minority ethnic communities across the UK are higher than those from other backgrounds.
In April, a report stated that more than a third of people critically ill with coronavirus in UK hospitals were from ethnic minority backgrounds, despite comprising around 18% of the population.
Concerns in Pill also go beyond the level of infection rates. Mr Ali added that the impact on business owners has also been hugely damaging.
“Along Commercial Road you’ve got all these small businesses, a lot of those are BAME owned, and they’ve been hugely impacted because those businesses have been more or less closed for the last three months,” he said.
“Some of the barbers have been closed, some of the food shops have been opened but they’ve lost a lot of their business... the taxi business has lost a huge amount of trade.
“A lot of those people now, they’re older people with limited skills so they’ll be forced onto the dole unfortunately.”
Speaking to others who live and work in Pill, other issues regarding the virus also crop up. In particular, people have expressed how at risk they feel in terms of contracting the virus when outside of the house.
“The biggest risk you run is from prostitutes, drug users and drug dealers, because they don’t social distance,” said Pam Glover, 70, who lives in Pill.
“They’ve got to be high risk just by their profession.”
Concerns about drug dealers and sex workers on the streets of Pill has been raised by residents and authorities on numerous occasions in recent years, and has been widely reported on by the media.
However, these concerns have been voiced anew due to fears regarding social distancing and the risk of infection rates and spreading the virus.
“You can’t avoid them. That is the biggest risk you run, going out on the street to go from A to B,” said Ms Glover.
She added: “Some people don’t drive and have to use the local chemist, or the local post office or shop, and they’re [groups of people] all congregating there.”
One of the people who must use these local amenities on a regular basis is a local resident who wished to remain anonymous.
They said: “I’m looking after my father who’s shielding. He’s 83. I went up the chemist last Friday for my father and I felt intimidated and scared with the amount of people.”
Ann Barton, who runs a floristry shop on Commercial Road, said she sees large groups of people passing her shop all day long.
“If you came down here at night you’d have the shock of your life. It’s like a holiday camp down here,” said Ms Barton, who lives in Bassaleg but travels to and from work in Pill every day.
She explained that there are people out on the street socialising in large groups, adding: “What really annoys me is the spitting and the blowing of noses.”
The lack of concern for social distancing in the area is something personal to Ms Barton, whose nephew was ventilated in intensive care with the virus.
As a business owner on the main thoroughfare through Pill, Ms Barton explained also that the current situation is unlike anything she’s experienced before.
“I’ve been doing flowers for almost 40 years and I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s heartbreaking.”
Unlike other businesses on Commercial Road, Ms Barton’s shop has fortunately been able to carry on doing
business.
However, she is limited in terms of who she is able to do business with – her only trade at the moment is funerals, as everything else has stopped. Whereas she would usually meet with grieving relatives, acting as an important point of contact and source of support in the planning process, now she can only lend her support over the phone.
Also apparent speaking to the community in Pill is that many people know of someone who has died of the disease.
“I know someone that died the other week. They had the virus,” said Ms Glover.
She also says that she knows of other people in Pill who have died from the virus, and more who been ill with it.
There is, she explained, a sense that Pill is forgotten about by the authorities and other parts of Newport.
“We’ve got all hell breaking loose down here. And nobody bothers really,” said Ms Glover.
“It [Pill] is not only forgotten about, it’s permanently kept like it. With all of these social ills in Pill, they haven’t got to worry about it anywhere else. It’s a containment area.”
She added: “What’s acceptable down here wouldn’t be acceptable in another area.”
A regeneration project for Pill was approved in 2016, promising to invest £10m in improvements to revitalise the area, but residents are concerned by the lack of progress shown.
“This coronavirus has brought this to the forefront. Promises have been made to the residents of Pill and none of it has transpired,” said Mr Ali.
“Because of the BME element... that community has obviously been hit harder, but that’s been made worse because of the greater poverty within the area,” he added.
“There’s issues of crime and antisocial behaviour so, all of that taken together, it was already very difficult and then Covid has made things that much worse.”
“You’ve got all these underlying issues and, I don’t want to be dramatic, but this has almost been a bit of a ‘nail in the coffin’ thing.”
Yet, in spite of all this, Mr Ali felt it was important to highlight the fact the local community in Pill has come together in characteristic fashion.
“It hasn’t all been negative, there’s been some real positives as well with how the community has pulled together,” he said.
A great example of this is Pill-based group Feed Newport, set up by Tariq Khan, which runs a food bank, offers a counselling service and mentoring programme, and provides general aid to people across the city.
Since the start of the outbreak, the group has turned its efforts to supporting the most vulnerable with food deliveries.
In March the group attracted the attention of footballer Aaron Ramsey, who donated £10,000 to save their Pillbased hub.
Mr Ali said: “We’ve lost people, loved ones, and that’s been heartbreaking for everybody. But there have been some positives as well... It’s a double-edged sword.”