UK Minorities Hit Hardest By COVID-19 Because Of Structural Racism - Labour Report

UK Minorities Hit Hardest by COVID-19 Because of Structural Racism - Labour Report

A Labour Party report blamed on Tuesday the "structural racism" still persisting in UK society for the disproportionate and devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic among UK black, Asian and other ethnic minority groups, and urged the government to take urgent action to tackle the problem

LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th October, 2020) A Labour Party report blamed on Tuesday the "structural racism" still persisting in UK society for the disproportionate and devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic among UK black, Asian and other ethnic minority groups, and urged the government to take urgent action to tackle the problem.

"This virus has exposed the devastating impact of structural racism. We need immediate action to protect people this winter, but we must also fix the broken system that has left ethnic minority people so exposed," the review conducted by Doreen Lawrence, a member of the UK upper house, said.

The report, which was commissioned to Lawrence by Labour leader Keir Starmer in the early weeks of the pandemic, said people from minority ethnic groups have been overexposed to the virus because they are more likely to work in frontline sectors, or live in poor-quality conditions or overcrowding housing.

It also said that this sector of the population is more likely to face barrier to accessing health care and has even faced racism as some people have sought to blame different communities for the spread of COVID-19.

"Black, Asian and minority ethnic people have been overexposed, under protected, stigmatised and overlooked during this pandemic - and this has been generations in the making," the lawmaker wrote in the foreword of the review entitled "An Avoidable Crisis."

A report published in June by Englands Public Health Service said that there was evidence that supports the hypothesis that people from Black African or Black Caribbean origins and from other ethnic minorities are more likely to test positive for COVID-19 and die from the disease.

According to the study, racism and health inequalities may have contributed to increasing such risks.

Reacting on Twitter to Baroness Lawrences review, Labour leader Starmer said the report must be a "turning point", and that government ministers "must absorb" it and act immediately.