Deaths among people of Pakistani ethnicity in Scotland are almost four times as likely to involve Covid-19 as white Scottish people, according to analysis.
National Records of Scotland (NRS) data found that between March 12 2020 and September 30 2021, the odds ratio that a Pakistani, Pakistani Scottish or Pakistani British person’s death involved the virus was 3.7 times higher.
Compared with white Scots, deaths among people of Chinese or Indian ethnicity were 1.7 times as likely to involve Covid-19, while for other Asian ethnicities it was three times as likely.
Deaths among people of white “Other British” ethnicity were 0.8 times as likely to involve Covid-19 than for white Scots.
Latest NRS data shows that 115 deaths that mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate were registered between November 8 and 14, which was 25 fewer than the previous week.
Pete Whitehouse, NRS director of statistical services, said: “The number of registered Covid-19 deaths has fallen to the lowest number since early September.
“The next couple of weeks will provide valuable evidence on whether the latest fall is the start of a sustained decline or a continuation of the recent fluctuations.
“Our analysis shows that there continues to be an increased risk of dying with Covid-19 amongst people living in Scotland’s most deprived areas, and that deaths of people with a Pakistani, Chinese, Indian or other Asian ethnicity are more likely to involve Covid-19 than those of people with a white Scottish ethnicity.”
The likelihood of deaths among people with other white, white Polish and white Irish ethnicity involving Covid-19 was not significantly different from white Scots, NRS said.
By November 14, there had been 11,933 deaths registered in Scotland where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
READ MORE: Scottish Government confirms 2,771 new cases in 24 hours
Of the deaths in the week to November 14, 23 were people aged under 65, 32 were aged 65-74 and 60 were 75 or older.
Fife was the council area with the highest number of deaths at 15, followed by Glasgow City with 14 and South Lanarkshire with eight.
The statistics are published weekly and cover all deaths registered in Scotland where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
They differ from the lab-confirmed coronavirus deaths announced daily by the Scottish Government because the NRS figures include suspected or probable cases of Covid-19.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon warned by business leaders over renewed Covid restrictions
NRS analysis of deaths occurring between March 2020 and October 2021 shows that after adjusting for age, people living in the most deprived areas were 2.5 times as likely to die with Covid-19 as those in the least deprived areas.
The size of this gap has widened from 2.1 over the period of the pandemic.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel