LONDON – Officials say the mortality rate among poorer people with the coronavirus is twice that of the richest in Britain.
The Office for National Statistics studied 20,283 deaths between March 1 and April 17. It says the mortality rate in the poorer areas was 55.1 deaths per 100,000 people compared to 25.3 deaths per 100,000 in the richer areas.
Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine at Oxford University, said “these areas also suffer from poor housing, nutrition and higher incidence of health conditions that might act to lower immunity.”
Helen Barnard, acting director of anti-poverty charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, says poorer people are less likely to have jobs where they can work from home. She says, “this means they may have to face a very significant drop in income or keep going to work, facing greater risks of catching the virus.”
