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Coronavirus: Male security guards, chefs and taxi drivers among those most likely to die with COVID-19, says ONS

Male security guards, chefs and taxi drivers among those most likely to die from COVID-19, according to new figures.

Plant processing workers, taxi drivers, bus and coach drivers, construction workers and chefs are also among those with the highest coronavirus death rates, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics.

Healthcare workers like doctors and nurses did not have a higher mortality rate compared with others of the same age and sex. There was a slightly raised rate among care home workers.

Among male workers, the ONS said the rates of deaths for taxi drivers and chauffeurs was 36.4 deaths per 100,000), bus and coach drivers (26.4 deaths per 100,000), chefs (35.9 deaths per 100,000), and sales and retail assistants (19.8 deaths per 100,000).

Men working as security guards had one of the highest rates, with 45.7 deaths per 100,000.

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

By contrast, for all males of working age (20-64 years old), the rate is 9.9 deaths per 100,000, with 5.2 deaths per 100,000 females.

The figures calculated by the ONS are based on coronavirus deaths in England and Wales registered up to 20 April.

Healthcare roles dominate the list of occupations most exposed to the virus.

Among them are dental nurses, paramedics, nurses and doctors.

Lower ranking prison officers, opticians, vets and residential wardens also make the list for raised exposure.

Figures show three in four people in such roles are women.

One in five people in these jobs are aged 55 or over. One in five are also from BAME ( Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) community backgrounds, compared with 11% in the population.

Six out of 16 of these occupations have a median pay lower than £13.21, the median hourly pay across the UK.

The ONS said its analysis "does not prove conclusively that the observed rates of death involving COVID-19 are necessarily caused by differences in occupational exposure".

Figures had been adjusted for age, but not for other factors such as ethnic group and place of residence.

The findings could change as more deaths are registered, the ONS added.

ONS figures will lead to more questions over PPE
Analysis by Laura Bundock, news correspondent

The ONS data confirms what many had long-suspected; some jobs have higher death rates from COVID-19 than others.

Men in the lowest skilled jobs had the highest death rate, those with professional occupations had the lowest.

Security guards have one of the highest rates, with taxi drivers, bus and coach drivers all significantly higher too.

Both men and women working in social care also had significantly higher rates of death.

This will no doubt raise many questions about whether a lack of PPE was a contribution.

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IDFIMH

Headline looks alarming, but would mean one death in city with 3,000 or so drivers, roughly speaking.

On the other hand, of course, if exposure at work is the problem, but not many drivers actually working...

And how many chefs will be working at the moment? Certainly none in restaurants, hotels and similar eataries.

According to the last set of stats I can remember (think it was 2018) there are about 360,000 licensed drivers in England.

So that means if every one of those 360,000 catches covid-19 (highly unlikely in my view) it will lead to 131 of us dying whilst having covid-19.

Normal rate for those of us who are male 20-64 (most of those 360,000) is 9.9 per 100,000, which equates to 36 of us dying under normal non covid-19 circumstances. So in effect if we all got the virus an extra death toll of 95.

But again that's based on every licensed driver getting covid-19. If only half of drivers got the virus then that would lead to 48 extra deaths.

Bearing in mind that our trade is a virtual list of all the things covid-19 loves, as SW alludes to, things could be a lot worse.

All those things include,

a) Our trade has a lot of BAME drivers,
b) A large chunk of the BAME drivers would in the bigger cities,
c) Most of the licensed drivers are male,
d) Most are 40 years +,
e) Many are overweight,
f) Many are regular smokers.

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IDFIMH

Really? Many of the restaurants and other eateries around here are still serving food either by delivery or takeaway.

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Grandad,

Certainly an element of that, but I suppose it depends on how you define chef - I was thinking more expensive restaurant rather than kebab shop.

But you're probably right in that in most places many restaurants doing takeways, and of course proper takeways have never closed, but wasn't thinking about them so much in terms of 'chefs'.

But all that kind of stuff here is more or less shut down, because of the student and tourist factors. And I'm not sure if even the takeaways are open here, again because they're so dependent on the students at this time of year.

But in the context of the UK as a whole, you're probably right.

(I pick up quite a few chefs here, and they're generally working at the kind of hotels and restaurants that will be closed here, and certainly not doing takeaways either.)

Update on latest ONS stats via the Sun.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11960550/ ... ronavirus/

One of the highest was for taxi drivers and chauffeurs - with 65.3 deaths per 100,00 - or 134 deaths so far, as well as bus and coach drivers with 44.2 deaths per 100,000 men or 53 deaths so far.

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IDFIMH