Leeds housing association chief calls for urgent inquiry into why BME communities suffer disproportionately from Covid-19

Ali Akbor OBE, head of Unity Home and Enterprise, said it was important to “learn lessons and act now” rather than wait until the Covid-19 threat had reduced.

A study published earlier this month by the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) found more than a third of almost 2,000 patients hospitalised with Covid-19 were non-white, despite only 14 percent of people in England and Wales being from BME backgrounds.

Following the report, the government announced an official inquiry into why individuals of BME origin appear to be disproportionately affected by coronavirus. However, there was little further detail on the investigation’s terms of reference or timeframe.

Mr Akbor, who is also secretary of the BME National network of housing associations in England, said the inquiry should proceed without delay.

He said: “I fully appreciate that government ministers, NHS England and Public Health England are incredibly busy in tackling coronavirus and saving lives.

“However, the promised inquiry into why such a disproportionate number of BME citizens are becoming infected and dying from the disease must be a component part of these efforts.

“It is frequently said by medical and scientific experts that coronavirus does not discriminate in who it chooses to attack. Boris Johnson’s illness is proof of this, and I wish him well in his recovery.

“But it is a statistical fact that black and minority ethnic people are most likely to become infected, alongside the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.”

Mr Akbor added that, while many BME doctors and nurses have lost their lives to Covid-19, more needed to be done to understand how the disease is linked to social deprivation often suffered by non-white communities.

He said: “There is much less public understanding of the deep suffering in the wider BME population with such a high proportion of individuals becoming sick and losing their lives after contracting Covid-19.

“BME communities are often plagued by acute levels of social deprivation which impact on people’s health. That is surely part of the explanation for why coronavirus is so prevalent in areas with large numbers of BME residents.

“But there are clearly other reasons which only a properly-constituted inquiry can identify. The government must fulfil its promise, get the inquiry underway and begin the process of finding answers. Lives can still be saved.”