FIRST MINISTER’S BAME COVID-19 ADVISORY GROUP REPORT OF THE SOCIOECONOMIC SUBGROUP CHAIR
Published on 1 June, 2020.
Although the coronavirus pandemic has created widespread fears and risks to lives and livelihoods across communities in Wales and around the world, the impacts on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups have been especially profound. Members of BAME communities are disproportionately contracting and dying from the Covid-19 disease, with available statistics suggesting that British BAME groups are up to two times more likely to die from the disease than their white counterparts. It is within this context that the First Minister of Wales commissioned this report. The report finds that race inequalities exist in Wales. In light of Covid-19, the lack of or poor quality of ethnicity data has resulted in poor health decisions, and BAME communities face a higher risk of catching and dying from the disease. Also captured are the experiences of racism from specific BAME groups exacerbated by Covid-19, the effectiveness of the communication of health information, the issue of cultural suitability of health and social care services, income and employment insecurity, housing overcrowding and environment, the financial burden created by migration status, violence against women, children, domestic abuse and sexual violence and the role of structural and systemic racism and disadvantage