Coronavirus: Shocking new evidence reveals Ethnic Minorities ‘are a third’ of UK Covid-19 cases

OVER a third of all the coronavirus patients in hospital are black, Asian or from an ethnic minority, new data suggests.

Research has shown that more than a third of patients who are critically ill in hospital with the virus are from these backgrounds.

Labour ministers had earlier called for an urgent investigation into why these communities are more vulnerable, the government replied and said it was committed to reducing health inequalities.

Only 14 per cent of people in England and Wales are from ethnic minority backgrounds, according to the 2011 census.

However, the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre found that 34 per cent of more than 3,000 critically ill coronavirus patients identified as black, Asian or minority ethnic.

Dr John Chinegwundoh, 50, works as a consultant respiratory physician at Kingston Hospital in south-west London and has recently lost colleagues, and his 93-year-old father, to coronavirus with his older brother also recently showing positive for the disease.

“My dad was being looked after in my hospital, on my ward,” he said. “It was good that I could be there and hold his hand, explain things to him. But bad that I have to go back and carry on caring for people going through the same things.”