Provisional analysis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has shown that the risk of death involving the coronavirus (COVID-19) among some ethnic groups is significantly higher than that of those of White ethnicity.

When taking into account age in the analysis, Black males are 4.2 times more likely to die from a COVID-19-related death and Black females are 4.3 times more likely than White ethnicity males and females.

People of Bangladeshi and Pakistani, Indian, and Mixed ethnicities also had statistically significant raised risk of death involving COVID-19 compared with those of White ethnicity.

You can find the relevant article on the ONS website here.

You can find a video here discussing some of the possible reasons for this.

The message is that people from BAME backgrounds might want to be especially careful in social distancing in situations where the virus might spread. Although the link is not proven, people from BAME backgrounds might also want to consider taking vitamin D supplements to boost thier immune systems. You can find our article on this here.