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Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that people from ethnic minority backgrounds are "disproportionately" dying with coronavirus.
A number of reviews, including by the Office for National Statistics and Public Health England, have now concluded that this is the case.
What is the situation in the UK?
There were at least 3,751 deaths of black and minority ethnic (BAME) individuals in hospitals in England up to 28 May.
This means that, where ethnicity is known, BAME people represented 16% of all deaths to this point.
The 2011 census - the most accurate source - showed that 14.5% of the English population were from BAME backgrounds. But clearly the proportion may have grown since then.
In 2016, the Office for National Statistics estimated that it could have increased to 15.4% of the population.
Similar breakdowns by ethnicity for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are not currently available.
These numbers do not show a great disproportionality in BAME deaths, but once we account for demographics - such as age and location - a different story is told.
Location
Some of the highest death and hospitalisation rates during the outbreak have been in London, where 40% of the population are from ethnic minority backgrounds (according to the 2011 census).
But even when you adjust for where the coronavirus outbreak has hit hardest, the Office for National Statistics, the think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Public Health England, all conclude that people from ethnic minorities are being disproportionately impacted.
Research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) shows that if we only looked at where BAME communities were concentrated, we might expect to see higher death rates than that for white British individuals.
However, the research says that this geographical factor is counter-balanced by the factor of age.
Most minority groups are much younger on average than white Britons - and therefore should be less susceptible to the virus.
The IFS concludes that, if we look at both geography and age combined, the death rate should be lower for most ethnicities than for white people.
They estimate that the deaths of black Africans are 3.7 times higher than might be expected by geography and age, 2.9 times higher for Pakistanis and 1.8 for black Caribbean (who are older on average than other minority groups).
Public Health England, who approached the issue in a similar way by adjusting for age, found similar disparities in both the infection rate and deaths for BAME people.
The ONS research goes one step further than these reviews and looks at other factors, such as health and deprivation.
It concludes that:
- Black people are 1.9 times more likely to die than white people
- Bangladeshis and Pakistanis are 1.8 times more likely to die
- Indians are around 1.5 times more likely
Analysis from Public Health England (PHE) showed that once in hospital, people from BAME backgrounds were also more likely to then require admission to an intensive care unit.
BAME people accounted for 11% of those hospitalised with Covid-19 but over 36% of those admitted to critical care.
What reasons could there be?
Health issues, living conditions and occupation could all play a role.
While there is no conclusive evidence that minority groups are more at risk from the disease, some are more likely to have certain underlying health conditions.
Black people are more likely to be overweight than white people, for example, while both Asian and black populations have been found to have a higher risk of diabetes and heart disease, according to the IFS.
Both of these have been linked to higher coronavirus death rates.
Various factors can play into these health inequalities, according to Public Health England, including socio-economic situation, access to health care and deprivation in an area.
It's worth noting that deprivation in general, regardless of ethnicity, appears to play a role.
According to the Office of National Statistics, the death rate in the poorest communities in England and Wales is twice as high as the wealthiest.
Issues with self-isolation in larger households could also play a factor.
Just under a third of Bangladeshi households are classified overcrowded, as are 15% of black African households, according to government statistics.
Only 2% of white British households are classified as overcrowded.
Why might occupations play a role?
Black and other ethnic minority individuals make up a large share of jobs considered essential in tackling the virus.
One in five people working for the NHS in England, for example, is from an ethnic minority background, however these numbers are even higher when we look solely at doctors and nurses.
Analysis by BBC News suggests that 103 healthcare workers were believed to have died from coronavirus as of 23 April.
Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people represented 65 of those deaths, where ethnicity has been established.
This article was first published on 24 April and has been updated several times since to reflect new figures .