Covid-19 and BAME communities

That this House is alarmed at the growing evidence that black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) people are over-represented in hospitalisations and deaths from covid-19 and that there are clear systemic economic inequalities that are meaning that ethnic minority communities are being disproportionately affected by the coronavirus crisis; is concerned at reports that almost three quarters of NHS and social care staff who have died of covid-19 have a BAME background; laments that years of austerity has had an utterly devastating impact on ethnic minorities, who have been disproportionately disadvantaged by public sector cuts; and calls on the Government to take urgent steps to ensure the safety of BAME workers, particularly NHS and care staff, on the frontline and to take immediate action to address the unequal health and economic effects of covid-19 on the UK’s black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) groups.