THE country’s leading organisation fighting race inequality has written to the Scottish Government calling for the urgent publication of the number of people from ethnic minorities who have died from Covid-19.

The Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER) also wants to know how many people from BAME backgrounds have been admitted to intensive care with the disease and figures on the number of health and social care staff from these communities who have been infected.

Its intervention followed the publication last week of data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which revealed the death rate for black men and women in England and Wales is four times that of the white population.

The CRER says detailed information is needed to find out whether the disease is similarly affecting members of BAME communities in Scotland to assess whether any additional advice and protection should be given to them.

Jatin Haria, executive director of CRER, wrote with his request last week to the interim Chief Medical Officer Dr Gregor Smith, as well as Public Health Scotland, the National Records of Scotland (NRS), senior Scottish Government figures and other officials.

“I’m emailing you today to call for urgent action on ethnicity monitoring of Covid-19 across all currently reported indicators,” he said. “As a strategic national race equality organisation, the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights is concerned that minority ethnic communities and individuals in Scotland may face serious consequences as a result of the current crisis.”

“You will no doubt be aware of the mounting body of evidence of severe racial inequalities identified in England and Wales, particularly regarding Covid-19 death rates.

“This data has been routinely collected, collated and made available to researchers since the beginning of the pandemic.

“Today, the Office for National Statistics confirmed that the death rate for black men and women in England and Wales is four times that of the white population. However, to date, we are not aware of any statistics disaggregated by ethnicity that have been released in Scotland.”

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In his email Haria underlined that Scotland’s public bodies and government have legal imperatives to ensure the approach to managing the Covid-19 pandemic does not replicate or further entrench racial inequalities.

He added: “Without immediate action, it will be too late to identify and mitigate inequalities for minority ethnic people.

“If you/your organisation is currently undertaking any work towards this, we would be grateful if you could respond to us with this information –and if not, we would be grateful if you could assure us about any action that you will take now.”

Haria told The National it would be surprising if there was not a similar trend about how the virus is disproportionately affecting BAME communities in Scotland, adding “we can’t take any mitigating measures if we don’t know what is going on”.

The CRER is also calling for ethnicity recording of all patients in hospital who have Covid-19 symptoms, whether Public Health Scotland (PHS) is liaising with Public Health England and whether PHS will be involved in the inquiry into ethnicity and Covid-19 that has been announced by the UK Government.

“We are aware that some of the demographics of the BME population in Scotland are different to those in England. It may well be that there is no particular problem regarding this issue in Scotland but we won’t know this until someone collects and examines the data,” he said.

“We believe the issue is one of great urgency – unless we confirm that monitoring is indeed taking place, and if it is not, unless we build monitoring into systems and practices with immediate effect, it will be too late to identify and mitigate inequalities for minority ethnic people and communities in Scotland.”

He added: “If the situation is the same in Scotland then we certainly could and indeed should take measures to deal with it – this could be by more targeted messaging to BME people in Scotland – about safety and social distancing for example or by taking measures to control infection in multi-generational and or overcrowded households, or by offering better PPE to shop keepers and other front line staff.”Last week the ONS researchers found when taking age into account, in comparison with white men and women, black men are 4.2 times more likely to die from a Covid-19-related cause, and black women are 4.3 times more likely.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said:

 

“Analytical partners across the Scottish Government, NRS, Public Health Scotland and the NHS are working together to consider how we can better understand the impact of COVID-19 on those from all minority ethnic communities, including from Black and Asian backgrounds. This data will be published when work is completed.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "The Scottish Government is concerned by recent reports (from England and the US) suggesting that minority ethnic communities are disproportionately affected by Covid-19. It is an issue we are taking very seriously and we are considering what immediate actions we need to mitigate any increased risk, in the workplace and in the wider community.”

It is understood collection of ethnicity data is undertaken on a voluntary basis in Scotland in order to provide unformation for medical and other research purposes.  Ethnicity questions are included in the death registration process, with informants to a death provided with a short statement as to their purpose, and noting that these questions, unlike the rest of the death registration process, are not statutory, and can be passed over if the informant does not wish to answer them.