Liverpool's black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities are significantly more likely to die from coronavirus as new statistics lay bare huge differences in mortality for different ethnic groups.
Black people are four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than white people, according to analysis by the Office for National Statistics.
While some of the difference has been attributed to socio-economic deprivation, another key divider in coronavirus death rates, the risk is still twice as high even when those factors are accounted for.
The ONS looked at deaths in England and Wales between March 2 and April 17, where Covid-19 is mentioned on the death certificate.
They then linked those to Census data to get the self-reported ethnicity of those who died.
The statistics are not broken down by region so there are no figures for Liverpool specifically.
Labour's shadow women and equalities secretary, Marsha De Cordova, called for better protection of BAME communities across the UK.
She said: “These figures once again reveal the shocking scale of the impact of Covid-19 on BAME communities, and in particular on Black African and Caribbean men and women.
“This crisis has exposed and amplified economic, social and health injustices in our society.
“These underlying inequalities can no longer be ignored. The Government must do all it can to protect all those who are affected by this virus.”
Of the 12,805 deaths included in the analysis, 2,079 were people from BAME backgrounds.
There had been 348 deaths of black men aged over 65 and 105 among younger black men, as well as 233 deaths of black women aged over 65 and 80 for those aged under.
When taking into account age in the analysis, black men are 4.2 times more likely to die from a Covid-19 -related death and black women are 4.3 times more likely than white men and women.
Even if you take into account other socio-demographic characteristics and measures of self-reported health and disability from the Census data, the risk is 1.9 times higher for black people.
Looking at the data after adjustments for age, deprivation and health, those in other BAME groups are also at a higher risk of dying.
The data included 386 deaths of people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds, 257 men and 139 women.
For those from these backgrounds, the risk of dying a Covid-19-related death was 1.6 times higher for women and 1.8 times higher for men than for white people.
The discrepancy was still there for those from Indian backgrounds, although it is smaller, at 1.4 times higher for women, which have seen 224 deaths, and 1.3 times higher for men, 268 deaths.
For those from multiple ethnic backgrounds, the risk of dying a Covid-19-related death was similar to that of white people - around 3% higher.
The figures include 60 deaths of men from multiple ethnic backgrounds and 34 deaths of women.
There were also 41 deaths of men from Chinese backgrounds, with the group having an 18% higher risk of dying than white men, and 18 deaths of women from Chinese backgrounds, with a 25% lower risk.
Many of the city's BAME communities are centred in wards with higher rates of deprivation, another key factor in coronavirus deaths.
