Coronavirus: North East

(asked on 25th September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 September 2020 to Question 81878, if he will make an assessment of the potential link between (a) covid-19 death rates and (b) regional health inequalities in the North East; and if she will take steps to collect more data on regional health inequalities.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 13th October 2020

Public Health England’s (PHE) review into factors impacting health outcomes from COVID-19 confirms that the impact of COVID-19 has replicated existing health inequalities and, in some cases, has increased them. Building on the PHE reviews, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities (Kemi Badenoch MP), is undertaking vital work that will contribute to reducing these disparities to protect our most vulnerable communities.

Recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the North East had the third highest mortality rates for deaths involving COVID-19. The ONS will continue to review deaths involving COVID-19 and will release an update when appropriate.

Local authorities will be working with other local partners including clinical commissioning groups, voluntary sector partners and community leaders to identify the way in which COVID-19 has widened health inequalities and will already be taking mitigating actions factoring it into their local recovery plans.

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