KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The biggest cause of Malaysian deaths in 2021 was COVID-19, the country's statistics department said on Thursday.
The virus was responsible for 31,063 deaths recorded out of the total of 157,251 medically certified deaths reported, the department said in a statement.
Ischemic heart disease was the second biggest cause of death with 13.7 percent followed by pneumonia (11.1 percent), cerebrovascular diseases (6.5 percent) and transport accidents (1.9 percent).
"COVID-19 infection was the main cause of death for males and females with 17,708 and 13,355 deaths respectively," it said.
According to the department, all age groups recorded COVID-19 infection as the leading cause of death except for the group aged 0-14, which saw transport accidents are the main cause of death. ■
