Understanding the impact of COVID19 on people from ethnic minorities in Scotland

In our Weekly COVID19 reports, Public Health Scotland publishes analysis that aims to develop understanding of the impact of COVID19 across the population. Today our report includes an initial analysis looking at the impact of COVID19 by ethnicity. Based on the limited available data, the analysis shows no signal of increased risk of COVID19 to people from an ethnic minority in Scotland. Low volume and incomplete data limits the conclusion we can draw at this time. We will therefore continue to look closely at this subject, and will publish updated analyses, as better data becomes available.

Phillip Couser MBE, Director of Data Driven Innovation at Public Health Scotland said:

"Understanding any inequity in risk of COVID19 is a crucial part of our response to the virus in Scotland. The analysis on ethnicity that we have published today seeks to do that, and is the start of ongoing work in this area.

"In the coming weeks, with teams from across the National Records of Scotland and the Scottish Government, we will work to scrutinise, explore, explain and report this data, including the differences between what the data on ethnicity and COVID19 shows in Scotland and the rest of the UK. Doing this will help Government, the NHS and everyone involved in tackling COVID19 to anticipate health care needs in the future and continue to protect the health of all of the people in Scotland."

View the COVID19 report on ethnicity