AN “alarming level” of racial inequality exists in England for people who are severely immunocompromised and require a third Covid-19 vaccine, a charity has warned.

Blood Cancer UK said 84 per cent of immunocompromised people from a white British background had three vaccine doses by mid-December, compared to just 49 per cent of those from a Bangladeshi background.

The figures were 46 per cent for people from an African background, 47 per cent for people from a Caribbean background and 43 per cent for people from a Pakistani background, according to the charity’s analysis of NHS England data.

It said the main reason for this is the “chaotic and poorly communicated rollout of third doses” for the immunocompromised.

Blood Cancer UK chief executive Gemma Peters said that the data, along with the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on ethnic minority groups, indicate that “immunocompromised people from ethnic minorities who have died of Covid would have lived if they had been white British.”

An NHS England spokesperson said they will continue to work to ensure vaccines are easily accessible.