Early on in the pandemic there were strong indications that Covid-19 was having a disproportionate impact on people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds. At one point newspapers and websites were publishing almost daily tributes to patients who had lost their lives after catching the virus, many of whom were not of white, British descent.
As time went on studies began to emerge which backed up the claim that these minority groups were bearing the brunt of the pandemic. In April 2020, an analysis of hospital admissions presented the first substantive evidence that death rates were higher among black and Asian patients who had contracted the disease. The report by the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) found more than a third (34%) of people critically ill with coronavirus in English, Welsh and Northern Irish hospitals were from ethnic minority backgrounds, compared with 18% of the UK population.
Shortly afterwards the Welsh Government decided to carry out an urgent investigation to determine why a disproportionate number of NHS workers from these groups were being affected by coronavirus. The first three casualties on the frontline of the health service in Wales were of black or ethnic minority backgrounds, while across the UK the first 10 doctors to die were all from minority backgrounds. A higher prevalence of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, chronic lung disease and vitamin D deficiency were all thought to be factors.
