Is ethnicity linked to incidence or outcomes of covid-19?
Kamlesh Khunti, Awadhesh Kumar Singh, Manish Pareek, Wasim Hanif
Abstract
The novel disease covid-19, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, is now a pandemic with devastating implications for populations, healthcare systems, and economies globally.Systematic reviews of ethnically homogenous cohorts from China suggest that the key risk factors for hospital admission include age, male sex, and comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and diabetes. 1The UK is the first country in the covid-19 surge with an ethnically diverse population and can therefore contribute to our understanding of the disease's effects in different ethnic groups, particularly those of South Asian or African Caribbean heritage.The ethnic minority population of the UK was around 13% at the time of the last census in 2011.