Over 14,300 people have so far died with covid-19 in Sweden.
The risk of dying from the disease is higher for people born abroad than Swedish-born.
For people born in Africa, the risk is 3.4 times higher than Swedish-born, while the risk for people born in the Middle East is 2.8 times higher.
People born in Finland are also twice as likely to die from the disease compared to Swedish-born people.
Only people born in the USA have a lower risk of dying in covid-19 than people born in Sweden.
Affects the ability to protect oneself
- One might instinctively think that viruses do not discriminate, everyone has the same risk of becoming infected.
But with our social conditions, the opportunity to protect oneself is affected, says Mikael Rostila, professor of public health science at Stockholm University, and one of the authors behind the Public Health Agency's report.
The risk of becoming so ill with covid-19 that intensive care is required is also higher for many people born abroad.
For people born in Africa or the Middle East, the risk is five times higher than for Swedish-born people.
For some countries of birth, the risk is higher than that, such as Somalia and Turkey, where the risk is more than nine and six times as great, respectively.
Difficult to work from home
Roya Hakimnia is a doctor at the health center in Rinkeby in northwest Stockholm.
She notices the vulnerability among her patients.
- We who work in healthcare in this area and other underprivileged areas know that our patients have many risk factors, such as COPD and diabetes.
Then we know that many work in close-knit occupations in elderly care and care, or as bus and taxi drivers.
You can not work from home, she says.
Mikael Rostila hopes that the knowledge that groups have been affected differently during the pandemic can lead to change.
- We must work more with this to avoid seeing similar patterns in the future, he says.