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13 May 2020updated 06 Oct 2020 9:45am

People from Scotland’s most deprived areas twice as likely to die from Covid-19 than those in wealthiest areas

By Samuel Horti

People living in Scotland’s most deprived areas are 2.3 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than those in the least deprived places, according to the National Records of Scotland.

The gap between the richest and poorest areas is larger for coronavirus deaths than the rate of deaths from all causes, the analysis showed. 

The latest figures from Scotland also showed that deaths in care homes account for 57 per cent of all Covid-19 deaths, higher than the equivalent figure in England. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the figures were “broadly in line with evidence seen from other countries”, and pointed to a study from the London School of Economics that suggested coronavirus care homes deaths in England and Wales had been under-reported by as many as 22,000.

Figures from other European countries show that roughly half of coronavirus deaths have occurred in care homes.

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