Before the coronavirus outbreak, the funeral service at the mosque in the hard-hit city of Birmingham, Britain’s second largest, would receive one or two bodies a week. In April, the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust, a public hospital network in the Midlands region, recorded more deaths than any other NHS trust in England. A study by NHS England found that 16% of coronavirus victims who died up to the week of April 17 came from ethnic minority backgrounds. Out of more than 100 health workers who have died from the virus, 63% have been identified as from those backgrounds. In the entrance, dozens of empty wooden coffins lie neatly stacked against one another, awaiting the bodies of the newly announced dead.

Source: bd News24 May 12, 2020 04:41 UTC