Public Health England: Disparities in the risk and outcomes of COVID-19 (June 2020)

Summary

Public Health England (PHE) has published data on the disparities in the risk and outcomes from COVID-19. This review presents findings based on surveillance data available to PHE at the time of its publication, including through linkage to broader health data sets.

It confirms that the impact of COVID-19 has replicated existing health inequalities and, in some cases, has increased them.

These results improve our understanding of the pandemic and will help in formulating the future public health response to it. 

Content

Key findings

• The review found that the largest disparity found was by age. Among people already diagnosed with COVID19, people who were 80 or older were seventy times more likely to die than those under 40.
• Risk of dying among those diagnosed with COVID-19 was also higher in males than females.
• Higher in those living in the more deprived areas than those living in the least deprived.
• Higher in those in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups than in White ethnic groups.