Manila, Jul 6 (IANS): The Philippines has reported a 57.3 per cent increase in the country's suicide rate in 2020 from 2019, according to an official report.

"From the 2,810 registered deaths due to intentional self-harm in 2019, this spiked to 4,420 in 2020," Xinhua news agency quoted the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report released on Monday as saying.

The report did not state why more people committed suicide in 2020, but added that last year was indeed stressful and challenging for many Filipinos.

The Covid-19 outbreak in January 2020 forced the Philippine government to impose a strict lockdown in Metro Manila and other parts of the country to curb the spread of the virus.

While thousands of people were left unemployed, many others lost their loved ones or separated from their families.

The National Center for Mental Health has earlier reported "a significant increase" in calls of people suffering from depression, including suicide-related calls on its hotline, since the start of the pandemic.

The PSA said registered deaths due to Covid-19 accounted for 4.9 per cent of the total registered deaths in 2020.

The Philippines has reported a total of 1,441,746 confirmed Covid-19 cases, with 25,192 deaths.