Publishing of ethnicity data about new coronavirus cases led to residents being 'racially abused', councillor claims
The publishing of ethnicity data about who is getting infected with Covid-19 has led to residents in Oldham being ‘racially abused’ and discriminated against, a councillor claims.Speaking at a meeting of the borough’s scrutiny panels, Councillor Shoab Akhtar, who represents Werneth ward, asked whether any other local authorities had chosen to make the ethnic breakdown of new coronavirus cases public.Oldham council publishes statistics weekly about how many cases of the virus have been recorded in the past seven days, as well the age, gender and ethnicity of new cases over a 28 day period.Coun Akhtar told the meeting: “This has led to BME residents being racially abused, discriminated against, victimised, etc.“And there’s a lot of hatred out