Obesity related illness was the direct cause of death of 369 Maltese people in 2019.
The shocking news was announced by Health Minister Chris Fearne in response to a parliamentary question tabled by Nationalist MP Ivan Bartolo.
Malta has one of the highest rates of adult and childhood obesity worldwide. Over a quarter of the Maltese adult population over 15 years is obese.
One might even be tempted to draw comparison between this shocking figure and the Covid-19 mortality tally.