Croydon is one of the worst areas of the country affected by deaths from coronavirus, according to figures from Public Health England.
In a study published yesterday, Croydon had 167.2 deaths per 100,000 population – around double the national rate.
Overall, Londoners have been three times more likely to die from coronavirus than those in the south-west of England according to the PHE study.
The study found 9,035 excess deaths in London over the period.
When taking into account the usual mortality rate and age of the two areas this was 3.7 times more than the least affected region – the south-west, which saw 2,187 deaths over the same period.
Up to May 8, there were 7,369 deaths linked to coronavirus in London.
London has been hardest hit by covid-19
Of the worst-affected local authority areas, Brent topped the list with 244.9 deaths per 100,000 population, three times the national average, followed by Lambeth (213.3 deaths), Newham (196.6), Lewisham (181.5), Croydon, Southwark (161.7), Haringey (160) and Merton (156.8).
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network- Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and BBC London News
- Inside Croydon named Journalist of the Year at 2018 Anna Kennedy Online Autism Heroes Awards
- ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: For three consecutive years, 2017, 2018 and 2019, Inside Croydon has been the source for award-winning nominations in Private Eye magazine’s annual celebration of civic cock-ups
- Inside Croydon had 1.6million pages viewed by 721,000 unique visitors in 2019
It’s tragically clear that UK residents who are Afro-Caribbean and Asian heritage are far more vulnerable to Covid. I have noticed that in the area of Croydon I live in (as I have not been to many others areas of Croydon recently) the people in the streets who are clearly taking the greatest effort to wear face masks when doing their shopping are people from these ethnic groups.
I myself now think that the UK Governments should agree to impose a legal duty on us all to wear facemasks in shops and on public transport. Would that really be asking too much? If everyone has to do it, fine.
I was shocked, on my one recent visit to South Criydon, to a shop I often use under normal circumstances, to see the shop full of peple without masks, standing cheek by jowl in the queue. I stood 2 m from the door, when a man inserted himself between me and the door. I didn’t even bother to say anything, as I had decided to avoid the shop until the health concerns on covid are gone.
The worry is that any one not wearing a mask in these close-proximity situations is endangering everyone, but these groups in paticular.
Another thing is that car use will surge, with those who have cars driving and polluting our air, which has been so fresh during lockdown, and another– that of bus companies cutting services and staff.
We need to get the country working again, safely, and surely, we need to be proactive on masks, on the “precautionary principle” that they probably help, and that if all wear them, the Covid certainly won’t be going up as a result.
The reasons for Croydon being “fifth worst” will be varied and nuanced, and we can’t currently infer anything from a headline number.
For instance, in Brent’s case, it’s home to Northwick Park Hospital which was tasked by Public Health England to screen incomers from China, particularly Wuhan, early in the onset.
It specialises in ‘tropical’ diseases, had been previously prepped for Ebola and its proximity to Heathrow makes it a destination for visitors with health concerns.
Finally, it also serves Harrow and Ealing boroughs, so some cases from there will have been attributed to Brent because that’s where they died.
The presence of Mayday in Croydon will have undoubtedly distorted the numbers, as they will have in Lambeth (St Thomas’s and King’s College Hospital), and Lewisham (QEH and UHL).
The bigger your hospital, and the wider and more populous its catchment, the worse it will look for you. Especially if, as is suspected, there’s a strong nosocomial – spread in hospitals basically – element to transmission.
There will be other factors (BAME impacts e.g. South Asian = higher incidence of diabetes = higher Covid death rate; familial group sizes; inherent vulnerabilities or resistances (e.g Japan) etc etc); to be worked out at some point so as a league table, it doesn’t tell us anything and is not much use (at the moment).
CUH had much less PPE than the PRUH in Bromley from the government centralised procurement service for hospitals. I wonder if there is any connection with politics as Croydon council is red and Bromley council is blue?