Immigrants ‘overrepresented’ in severely ill COVID-19 patients in Germany

Immigrants ‘overrepresented’ in severely ill COVID-19 patients in Germany

LONDON: More than 90 percent of severely ill COVID-19 patients in Germany have a "migrant background," a leading doctor has said, amid concerns that minority ethnic groups require more support in the fight against the virus. Thomas Voshaar, a top doctor at a German lung hospital, said a survey of leading medics had found that many of the most gravely ill patients were what he described as "patients with communications barriers." Saloni Dattani, a science writer and researcher at OurWorldInData, told Arab News: "The reasons that ethnic minorities are more likely to develop severe disease are well-understood. In the UK and the US, ethnic minorities are more likely to live in geographical areas that are hard hit, more likely to work in essential services where they come into contact with more people, more likely to live in dense areas, and more likely to live in multigenerational households." She added: "In sum, a greater proportion of severely ill patients are from ethnic minority backgrounds because a greater proportion of all COVID-19 patients are from ethnic minority backgrounds." The head of Germany's top diseases institute, Lothar Wieler, said the number of intensive care patients with a Muslim background was "clearly above 50