New COVID-19 cases fall to 20,000s

A makeshift COVID-19 testing center is empty in Seoul, May 5. Yonhap

New COVID-19 cases fell to the 20,000 level for Thursday from above 40,000 the previous day as the eased antivirus restrictions designed to return the nation to normalcy continued to be followed.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 26,714 new infections, including 28 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 17,464,782.

The tally is a marked decrease from 42,296 reported for Wednesday and sharply down from 50,556 reported a week earlier.

Daily infections have been on the downward trend in recent weeks after soaring to over 620,000 in mid-March due to the fast spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant. The figure fell to nearly a three-month low of 20,076, Sunday.

The country added 48 COVID-19 deaths Friday, bringing the total to 23,206, the KDCA said for a fatality rate of 0.13 percent; while the number of critically ill patients came to 423, down from 441 a day earlier.

As of Friday, 44.55 million people, or 86.8 percent of the population, had been vaccinated with the first two shots, and 33.16 million people had received the first booster shots, representing 64.6 percent.

The number of those having had second booster shots came to 2.6 million, or 5.1 percent of the population, the KDCA said.

In line with the recent gradual decrease, the government has removed almost all strict antivirus rules to support a return to normalcy.

Effective Monday, the government lifted the outdoor mask mandate after more than 18 months of enforcement, except for large gatherings of 50 or more.

Last month, the government also fully lifted private gathering limits and business hour curfews.

But mask wearing is still recommended when it is difficult for people to keep a 1-meter distance from each other at gatherings and in circumstances where lots of droplets of saliva could be expelled, such as shouting and singing.

The government has also made it clear that indoor mask wearing needs to be in place for some time.

The health authorities said the downturn in infections is expected to continue at least for a month to come, but they remained vigilant over the possible uptick after confirming the country's first case of the even more contagious Omicron sub-variant dubbed BA.2.12.1.

The new sub-lineage of the Omicron variant has caused a recent surge in infections in New York and elsewhere. (Yonhap)

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