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| Health officials are seen at a COVID-19 testing center in central Seoul, April 26. Yonhap |
Daily new COVID-19 cases jumped to over 80,000, Monday, as most of the country's virus restrictions were lifted amid the slowdown of the Omicron wave of the coronavirus.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 80,361 new infections, including 16 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 17,009,865.
Monday's tally is sharply up from the 34,370 cases reported for Sunday as the daily counts tend to fall due to fewer tests on the weekend before rising toward the end of the week.
The Omicron wave has been declining since the country's daily infections reached a peak of 621,178 cases, March 17.
The death toll came to 22,325, up 82 from the previous day and the first time in 55 days the number has fallen to double digits, although the fatality rate remained at 0.13 percent.
The number of critically ill patients came to 613, down 55 from a day earlier.
To reflect the weakening pandemic, the health authorities downgraded COVID-19 to the second-highest level of its four-tier infectious disease control system Monday.
Of the locally transmitted infections, Gyeonggi Province added 19,362 and Seoul reported 13,559 cases, the KDCA said.
As of midnight Monday, 44.54 million, or 86.8 percent of the 52 million population, had been fully vaccinated, and 33.08 million, or 64.5 percent, had received their first COVID-19 booster shots, the KDCA said.
A total of 1.03 million people nationwide, or 2 percent of the population, have received second booster shots. (Yonhap)
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