LONDON (AP) – Taxi driver Gary Nerden knows colleagues who became seriously ill from COVID-19. He knows the area in east London where he lives and works has the highest infection rates in all of England. But since he can not afford not to work, he drives up to strangers for up to 12 hours a day and relies on a thin plastic screen to keep him safe.
“I have people who tell me they will not wear a mask and say they have been released,” Nerden, 57, said. “I have diabetes, I have to take care of myself. I wipe the handles, the seat belt at each customer, but that’s really what I can do. ”
Nerden and his wife, an administrative worker at the hospital, live in the outer London state of Redbridge, which in mid-January had the country’s second highest population tested positive for the coronavirus: 1,571 cases per 100,000 people. Official figures estimate that at one point 1 in 15 people there had COVID-19 – even after the government introduced a third national exclusion to control a rapidly spreading, more contagious variant of the virus.
Redbridge and its surrounding areas, which are located on a commuter belt between the capital’s north-east and Essex coasts, have been dubbed the ‘COVID Triangle’ because they have all been above England’s worst infection rate in recent weeks. Although the case’s rates have dropped significantly, local leaders said the situation remains critical and that the city was still ‘in the eye of the storm’.
According to them, the large number of essential workers in the public works, combined with dense housing and high levels of poverty, contributes to the virus becoming much more difficult than most places in the UK. The factors especially make the fight against the pandemic there. challenging.
“We have some of the leading workers here in the community: the taxi drivers, the NHS employees (the national health service), the train drivers who go to central London, the commuters, the cleaners,” said Redbridge council leader Jas. Athwal, said. said.
‘People risk their chance – is it about feeding my children, or risking myself with COVID? And of course they have to feed their children, ”Athwal added. “All that is responsible for the excessive number of viral infections, the deaths, because people have to do their job.”
Many of the lower-income workers with high exposure to the virus come from ethnic minority backgrounds, which are the most dangerous – as well as the most difficult to persuade to be vaccinated. Redbridge’s population is one of the most diverse in the country, with large Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities and less than 40% of the population identifying themselves as white Britons.
Several studies have shown that the pandemic causes an excessively serious illness and deaths among ethnic minorities and those from poorer households. In the UK, Public Health found England that, after taking into account factors such as age and gender, people from the Bangladeshi heritage die from COVID-19, at twice as much as the white British. Black people and other Asian groups also have a 10 to 50% higher risk of death.
Experts believe that this is due to a combination of factors. People from minority groups probably live in overcrowded housing and take public transportation to poor work to get to work. They are also more likely to have long-term conditions such as heart disease and diabetes which increases their risk of becoming seriously ill if they contract the virus.
Khayer Chowdhury, a Redbridge councilor of Bangladeshi descent, said many Asian households in the city are multigenerational families living together under one roof, giving the virus greater opportunity to spread.
“Our diversity makes us unique, but it also makes us vulnerable,” he said.
Britain has lost more than 100,000 lives to the coronavirus, the worst death toll in Europe.
“Everyone in the community knows someone who has died,” Athwal said. “The fear is finally starting to feel at home.”
Officials say a small but increasing number of people are violating restrictions, in part due to fatigue with lock-in rules. Enforcement officers broke up rallies and ‘car rallies’ and closed clubs and restaurants and fined them for parties. On a recent weekday, a large team of police officers patrolled the main shopping street, which was teeming with a steady stream of people despite the government’s message to ‘stay home’.
But the biggest challenge is on the vaccination front. Several UK-based studies have suggested that vaccine intake for both the coronavirus and other samples among black people and minorities is significantly lower than in the general population. Some researchers say it is caused by mistrust of authorities and disengagement from public health messages, and is exacerbated by vaccinations on social media.
A local resident Salman Khan and his wife said they were not sure they would get a while if it was offered because the pandemic made them doubt “whether the government and the news are telling the truth.”
Dr. Anil Mehta, a local doctor, said health officials put everything into working to reach the poorest and most difficult communities. This week, he is offering vaccinations at homeless shelters in hopes of vaccinating the many refugees from the area and those who are sleeping rough. He said he also took on the role of ‘myth-buster’ and tried to dispel misinformation and conspiracy theories.
“People believe in all sorts of things – it affects fertility, or against Black Lives Matter,” Mehta said. ‘There’s a lot of hesitation, whether they want it or they trust us. This is currently our struggle. ”
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