An average of one person a day took their own life during the COVID-19 lockdown in the country, police statistics show.

According to Bukit Aman Management Department director Ramli Din, 266 people committed suicide between March 18 and Oct 30 - averaging 30 a month, or one per day.

The largest contributing factor for the suicides was debt problems (25%), followed by family issues (24%), and domestic disputes (23%), reported Kosmo.

Other contributing factors to the suicides were love failures (15%), work-related issues, hallucinations and mental-related issues, as well as drug problems.

Johor reported the highest number of suicides in the said period (47 cases), followed by Selangor (39), Kuala Lumpur (28), and other states.

Ramli said that men are more likely to kill themselves, with 78% of the statistics made up of men, while the remaining 22% were women.

As for the age group, those aged between 19 and 40 made the majority (53%), followed by those aged between 41 above (24%), and 15 to 18 years old (23%).

The majority of suicide cases involved by hanging (189 cases), while jumping off buildings came a close second (37 cases), followed by consuming poison (14), self harm (13) and so on.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, a suicide happens every 40 seconds, bringing the average annual suicide numbers to 800,000 around the world.

The statistic also shows that suicides are among the top 10 contributing factors for mortalities in the world, and the second highest for fatalities involving those aged between 15 and 29.


Source: Kosmo
Photo source: forbes.com