Mosque’s makeshift morgue shows virus toll on UK minorities

BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — The holy month of Ramadan is underway, and the Central Jamia Mosque Ghamkol Sharif should be full of worshippers. But this year, the main arrivals are the dead. While the mosque in the central England city of Birmingham has been closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, its parking lot has been transformed into a temporary morgue with room for 150 bodies. The volunteer-run mortuary, with its white tents, industrial refrigerators and neat stacks of coffins, is evidence of the toll the virus is taking on Britain’s Muslim and ethnic-minority communities. The government has announced an inquiry into why non-white Britons are feeling a disproportionate impact of the coronavirus.