Coronavirus: Health checks recommended for ethnic minorities from age 25

Health checks should be offered to people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds from the age of 25, a report has recommended.

MPs examined the disproportionate impact of the Covid pandemic on people from black and Asian backgrounds. They said NHS checks, currently available to 40-70-year-olds in England, could pick up conditions which are linked to severe coronavirus.

The role of inequalities in employment and housing was also emphasised. The report, produced by the Women and Equalities Committee, said the government should act to tackle these wider causes of poor health.

The committee heard evidence during the course of its investigation that showed 63% of healthcare workers who died after contracting the virus had come from black, Asian or other ethnic minority backgrounds.

And during the first peak of the virus, data from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre showed 34% of coronavirus patients in ICUs were from an ethnic minority background, whereas they made up 12% of viral pneumonia admissions.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) data has also shown that black people were almost twice as likely to die from Covid-19 as white people, with those of Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnicity about 1.7 times as likely.

The report raised concerns the pandemic was entrenching "existing health inequalities".

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Source: BBC News, 15December 2020