British scientists have identified a gene that doubles the risk of dying from Covid-19, providing new insights into why some people are more susceptible to the disease than others, while opening up possibilities for targeted medicine.

Around 60 per cent of people with South Asian ancestry carry the high-risk gene, researchers at Oxford University said, adding the discovery partly explains the high number of deaths seen in some British communities, and the effect of Covid-19 in the Indian subcontinent.

The scientists found that the increased risk is not because of a difference in genetic coding of the proteins, but because of differences in the DNA that makes a kind of “switch” to turn a gene on.