South Korea logged its second-highest monthly deaths in April due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, statistical office data showed on Wednesday.
The number of deaths was 36,697 in April, up 46.3 per cent from the same month of last year, according to Statistics Korea.
It marked the highest April figure and also the second-highest after hitting a record high of 44,487 in March.
The record deaths were attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by the Omicron variant spread in the months.
The number of newborn babies was 21,124 in April, down 7.0 per cent from a year earlier.
Childbirth has been on the decline for 77 months since December 2015 amid the rising trend of delayed marriage and the lower number of women who are of childbearing age.
The number of marriages fell 0.4 per cent from a year earlier to 15,795 in April, while the number of divorces shrank 20.4 per cent to 7,198. (Xinhua/NAN)
