MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2020) Long-term exposure to air pollution may increase the risk of dying from the coronavirus disease, the UK's Office of National Statistics (ONS) said in a fresh report on Thursday.
"Without controlling for ethnicity, we find that long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) could increase the risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19 by up to 7% (comparable with results from a US study)," the statistical body said.
Small changes to nitrogen dioxide exposure could also increase COVID-19 death rates by 2 percent, the ONS found.
According to the statistical body, Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, which have disproportionately higher mortality rates from COVID-19, tend to live in inner cities and are therefore exposed to greater levels of air pollution.
At the same time, several other factors could be causing the increased death rates observed within BAME communities, the ONS said.
"As air pollution is just one of many factors that could be driving disproportionate outcomes for minority ethnic groups, the increased risk of dying from COVID-19 (found when ethnicity is not controlled for) is likely to be an overestimate of the true effect," the ONS wrote.
The study was based on the analysis of 46,471 coronavirus disease-related deaths in England that were registered between March 7 and June 22.
Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, the ONS has reported higher mortality figures than the UK's Department of Health and Social Care. On Wednesday, the department revised how it reports deaths, only counting those that occurred within 28 days of a positive test for COVID-19.
Consequently, the UK government's official coronavirus death toll fell from 46,706 to 41,329 on Wednesday.
