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| A COVID-19 testing site at the Seoul Station, Thursday. Yonhap |
New COVID-19 cases fell for a fourth consecutive day to stay below 30,000, Friday, as the government kept tight vigilance, postponing a plan to relax more antivirus curbs.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 23,462 infections, including 11 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 17,938,399.
The daily counts have continued to fall from 31,352, Tuesday, to 28,130, Wednesday, and 25,125, Thursday. The highly transmissible Omicron wave peaked in mid-March with the daily count hitting over 620,000.
The KDCA recorded 26 deaths Saturday, putting the total at 23,911, for a fatality rate stood at 0.13 percent; while the number of critically ill patients came to 235, down from the previous day's 251.
The downward trend in the virus curve has given a boost to the government's efforts to restore pre-pandemic normalcy, enabling it to lift most virus restrictions, such as the cap on private gatherings and business curfews.
The government, however, announced Friday it will push back a plan for the next relaxation steps, including the lifting of a seven-day self-isolation mandate for COVID-19 patients, by four weeks to June 20.
The administration is concerned another virus resurgence could hit the country in the summer and peak between September and October. If the isolation requirement is scrapped, the caseload could bounce back by up to 4.5 times between June and July, according to its forecast.
As of midnight Friday, 44.56 million, or 86.8 percent of the population, had completed the full two-dose vaccination course, and 33.26 million (64.8 percent) had received their first booster shots. More than 3.79 million people have had their second boosters, the KDCA said. (Yonhap)
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