CORONAVIRUS was the leading cause of death in Wales last month for the fourth consecutive month.

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that coronavirus was responsible for 22.2 per cent of deaths in Wales.

That is more than two times the amount of the next leading cause, ischaemic heart disease, the ONS said.

In Wales, the provisional number of deaths registered in February 2021 was 3,199.

This was 450 more deaths than in February 2020 and 260 more deaths than the five-year average for February.

Of those deaths, 711 were classified as being due to Covid-19.

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Oakdale and Pen-twyn recorded the most coronavirus deaths in Gwent in February, with six.

The map below shows how many areas of Covid deaths have been recorded in each area of Gwent by month.

Credit - Office for National Statistics

The same theme is seen in England, where coroanvirus was again the leading cause of death in February.

Covid-19 accounted for 30.1 per cent of English deaths, three times the number of deaths caused by dementia and Alzheimer's disease, the second leading cause of death.