Swedish, Finnish Authorities Note 'Heavy Over-Representation' of Somalis among COVID-19 Cases

Cramped living conditions, adverse socio-economic backgrounds, and poor language skills have been suggested as the reason for immigrants' over-representation.

Immigrants from Somalia and some parts of the Middle East are heavily over-represented among those infected by COVID-19 in Sweden, according to the Public Health Authority.

During its recent press conference, the agency said that this particularly applied to Somalis, but also immigrants from Iraq, Syria, Finland, Turkey, Iran, the former Yugoslavia, and Eritrea

“We have an over-representation of people born abroad”, state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said, singling out those with Somalia and Iraq as the country of origin.

According to Tegnell, congestion in the immigrant-dominated suburbs may be a possible explanation. Another one is their adverse socio-economic background. In the case of COVID-19 patients from Finland and the former Yugoslavia, the over-representation is considered to depend on their advanced age