British South Asians suffer heavy toll as coronavirus surges

In the UK, more than 135,000 people have passed away with COVID-19 on their death certificates since the start of the pandemic. Britain’s ethnic minorities, particularly those of Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean or Pakistani origin, have been disproportionately affected in terms of exposure to the virus – with some communities witnessing far higher rates of hospitalisation and deaths. In August last year, Public Health England found that in the first wave, people of Bangladeshi descent were twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than white Britons, while people of Indian and Pakistani origin were between 10 and 50 percent more likely to die. According to a February report by the Office for National Statistics, “There was a reduction of COVID-19 mortality during the second wave of the pandemic in most of the ethnic groups, while the higher rates continued in men and women from Bangladeshi and Pakistani background.”