The UK professions carrying the highest risk of death from coronavirus

Linda J. Dodson

Security guards, taxi drivers and chefs are the workers most likely to die from coronavirus, facing a higher risk even than care home or NHS staff, according to new data from the ONS.

The risk levels were revealed in figures published by the ONS the morning after Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, encouraged Britain to start getting back to work.

The new figures – the first of their kind since the virus crisis started – show that bus and coach drivers face a particularly high risk of death from Covid-19. Experts said the findings have “huge implications” for the route out of lockdown.

Male security guards, such as those marshaling the numbers of people in supermarkets, were found to have a mortality rate of 45.7 deaths per 100,000, while taxi drivers and chauffeurs had a rate of 36.4.

Male bus and coach drivers were found to have a rate of 26.4 deaths per 100,000, chefs a rate of 35.9 and sales and retail assistants one of 19.8.

For male social care workers in England and Wales, the rate of death involving Covid-19 is estimated to be 23.4 deaths per 100,000 males, while for female social care workers the figure is 9.6.

The figures are based on an analysis of the 2,494 registered deaths involving coronavirus among workers aged 20 to 64 in England and Wales up to and including April 20. Overall, nearly two-thirds of deaths among workers were accounted for by men.

The data showed that, compared with the wider rate among people of the same sex, those working in the lowest skilled occupations had the highest rate of death.

On Sunday, Mr Johnson urged those who could not work from home to return to their place of work, an announcement that will particularly affect those in the manufacturing and construction industries.

Source Article

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