The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has welcomed the Public Health England report- ‘Understanding the impact of Covid-19 on BAME groups’.
The PHE review of disparities in the risk and outcomes of Covid-19 shows that there is an association between belonging to some ethnic groups and the likelihood of testing positive and dying with the virus.
RPS in England Chair Professor Claire Anderson said in a statement: “After constructive discussions with Public Health England we welcome the publication of the second part of its report. The Government now needs to turn recommendations into actions and urgently address the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on BAME communities.”
The PHE review found that found that the highest age standardised diagnosis rates of Covid-19 per 100,000 population were in people of black ethnic groups including 486 in females and 649 in males. The lowest were in people of white ethnic groups including 220 in females and 224 in males per 100, 000 population.
Comparing to previous years data, all-cause mortality was almost four times higher than expected among black males for this period, almost three times higher in Asian males and almost two times higher in white males.
Among females, deaths were almost three times higher in this period in black, mixed and other females, and 2.4 times higher in Asian females compared with 1.6 times in white females, the report highlighted.
Anderson noted: “The report rightly recognises the need to protect BAME staff working in health and care. We have already written to the equalities minister, urging the government to engage across the health professions so that everyone on the frontline has the support they need.
“It also highlights the importance of increasing diverse leadership at all levels in health and care system. We know that the pharmacy profession is no exception and we’ll be talking about this more in our Inclusion and Diversity Strategy due to be published next week.”
An analysis of survival among confirmed Covid-19 cases showed that, after accounting for the effect of sex, age, deprivation and region, people of Bangladeshi ethnicity had around twice the risk of death when compared to people of white British ethnicity.
People of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, other Asian, Caribbean and other black ethnicity had between 10 and 50 per cent higher risk of death when compared to white Britons.
