New COVID-19 cases dip below 300,000 as omicron wave tops out
People stand in line to take a COVID-19 test at a screening clinic in front of Seoul Station March 31. Yonhap
New daily COVID-19 cases dipped below 300,000 Friday as the Omicron sub-variant wave that gripped the country for months appears to be topping out with one in every four people having contracted the virus.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 280,273 new infections, including 48 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 13,375,818.
The country has seen a downward trend in daily COVID-19 infections for the first time in about three months, recording a nearly one-month low of 187,182, Sunday, in sharp contrast to the all-time high of over 620,000, March 17.
The death toll, though, keeps going up, with another 360 added to reach 16,590 for a fatality rate of 0.12 percent.
The number of critically ill patients fell to 1,299 on Friday from the record high of 1,315 the previous day.
The government said the private gathering limit will be raised to 10 people from eight, and business hour curfew for restaurants and cafes will be pushed back by one hour to midnight, starting Monday, for two weeks.
Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum suggested the measures could be the last adjustment on the social distancing rules before possibly removing all of such restrictions in the battle against the pandemic.
"We will boldly overhaul the antivirus measures next time if our medical system can be stably managed to reduce serious cases and deaths in the next two weeks," he said.
The transition team of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, who is due to take office May 10, has also said it will seek to scrap the curfew on business hours once the health authorities confirm the virus wave has passed its peak.
Korea has largely abandoned the rigorous contact tracing and distancing scheme amid growing anger from small businesses and self-employed people hit hard by the pandemic, and under broader efforts to regain normalcy and focus on managing severe cases.
As of Friday, 32.74 million people out of the 52 million population, or 63.8 percent, had received booster shots. The number of fully vaccinated people came to 44.48 million, representing 86.7 percent, the KDCA said. (Yonhap)