Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Your ethnicity could soon be recorded when you get a COVID-19 test. Would you be OK with that?

Your ethnicity could soon be recorded when you get a COVID-19 test. Would you be OK with that?

People's cultural backgrounds and the languages they speak could soon be recorded when they get a COVID-19 test, an "essential" move experts say will help governments respond to future outbreaks but should have happened much sooner.

The Health Department has confirmed it is "actively considering" capturing cultural and linguistic diversity data, cautioning it would only collect information in a way that is "useful and respectful".

Community leaders and academics have been pushing for data collection on ethnicity in the same way gender, Indigenous background and age are recorded.

University of Technology Sydney sociology emeritus professor Andrew Jakubowicz said the information was crucial.

"It's important to know if particular groups have been affected badly, it's important to know if groups have been missed out in testing regime," he said.


"It's important what networks exist in local areas and how that might help trackers get to the source.

"It also helps us know which groups are the most vulnerable because they haven't been caught up in the testing regime."

The consideration by the Health Department comes after criticism of the Federal Government for its handling of ethnic communities during the pandemic, with an expert panel warning earlier this year of a "missed opportunity" to protect at-risk groups such as migrants.

The ABC last week also revealed the Department of Home Affairs had used Google Translate in an effort to communicate with multicultural communities during the pandemic.

Ethnic minorities are among those at a higher risk of becoming ill from coronavirus and passing it on without realising because they are more likely to have a chronic disease and less likely to engage with public health messages.

Professor Jakubowicz said recording ethnicity would have been beneficial much earlier, when the pandemic began.

"I've been pushing for this since April and I think perhaps we would have done better in some of the situations in Victoria, in Melbourne in particular," he said.

"If we had been collecting this data early on, we would have become alerted to some of the patterns which have now become clear in retrospect.

The fact we're only discovering this later on rather than while it's happening is a fairly scary finding."



Multicultural communities in Melbourne were the origins of some of the first outbreaks in Victoria's second wave.


But Professor Jakubowicz acknowledged concerns about individual security and racism involved with data collection on ethnicity.

"It's one of the reasons governments have been worried about this — if the data is misinterpreted or used in ways that damage communities," he said.

The first outbreaks of the second wave in Melbourne's outer suburbs were in the homes of culturally diverse communities.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton later acknowledged the State Government had not always properly engaged with those groups.

Diversity consultant Tasneem Chopra said the information would also allow officials to target resources and better engage community leaders.

"If the data is indicating that there's one particular community group more so than others that's presenting itself as testing positive, this is an opportunity for systems and health service providers to be more creative in the way they're engaging," she said.

In a report issued in September by peak national multicultural body Federation of Ethnic Community Councils Australia (FECCA), it described the "diversity data deficit" in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic as an "omission of serious concern".

It also said the data would be "essential to inform targeted public health initiatives" to ethnic communities, while helping governments respond comprehensively to future disease outbreaks or pandemics.


Tasneem Chopra says the information collated from tests could mean service providers could engage more creatively with communities.


NZ already recording ethnicity


Countries like New Zealand are already recording ethnicity when testing for COVID-19.

Senior lecturer at the University of Otago, Lesley Gray, said it had been a valuable part of the country's pandemic response.

"It's important to monitor the health outcomes to achieve health equity," she said.

"It certainly helps us identify where people are acquiring the cases.

"In terms of our interest in health equity, we're already [asking] — although we've had a small number of people die from COVID 19 in this country — why are our Maori statistics so high?

"That's likely to relate to poorness, previous health experiences, colonisation, so we need to know how we can best protect our more vulnerable populations."

Taskforce set up to mitigate health impact


The Australian Government has also set up a taskforce to help it mitigate the health impact of COVID-19 for people from multicultural backgrounds.

It comes after "nonsensical" and "laughable" language translations of COVID-19 public health messages were distributed to multicultural communities, prompting fears migrants and refugees would lose trust in authorities' handling of the coronavirus pandemic.


Some of the Government's messages were poorly translated.


The Federal Government is still finalising the membership of the taskforce, but the ABC understands it will be headed by Lucas De Toca, the acting first assistant secretary of the COVID-19 Primary Care Response Team.

Dr De Toca currently co-chairs the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Group on COVID-19.

A spokesman for the Health Department it was establishing the advisory group "in recognition of the challenges that some individuals and communities face in relation to public health interfaces and access to health services in the context of the pandemic".

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×