Defending allegations made in national media

Reacting to comments made in this Daily Mail article published on Wednesday 6 October 2021, Blackburn with Darwen Council Leader Coun Mohammed Khan CBE said:

Tragically we have seen many of our communities lose loved ones during the pandemic, and for a national newspaper to suggest this is as a result of blanket non-compliance to Covid restrictions is disrespectful and unsubstantiated.

Health inequalities that existed before the pandemic have contributed to our local population being at a higher risk of Covid infection, particularly in our more deprived communities. As one of the hardest hit boroughs in England, the government’s Levelling Up programme funding should be targeted at areas like ours with long-term structural issues which the pandemic has only exacerbated, and which put residents living in areas with higher levels of deprivation at greater risk of poor health. We will continue to call on the government to provide funding to local councils for essential public health services that help keep local populations well and avoid needing hospital treatment.

Blackburn with Darwen has a far higher proportion of frontline workers than many other areas of England. During lockdowns these people did not have the option to work from home and instead went out to work to help keep vital services running – working in supermarkets and food service, pharmacies, health and social care, delivering essential Council services, driving taxis and more.

There are several other factors that put Blackburn with Darwen’s populations at a higher risk of exposure to Covid.

31% of Blackburn with Darwen’s population is from a BAME background. National studies have found that people from BAME groups are more likely to work in frontline occupations with a higher risk of COVID-19 exposure, and are also more likely to use public transport to travel to work.*

In addition, Blackburn with Darwen has a disproportionately high population living in high-density, multi-generational households, plus a relatively high proportion of terraced housing – 47%, compared with 26.4% in England and Wales. 12.6% of BwD residents live in overcrowded properties, compared with 8.3% in England and Wales.

There is evidence to suggest that high-density accommodation and multi-generational households are likely to increase the risk of virus transmission due to the limited opportunity to socially distance within the home. Additionally, in multi-generational households there is an increased risk of transmission from younger and working age adults to older and more vulnerable people living in the same household.

 

* https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-understanding-the-impact-on-bame-communities