New virus cases drop below 50 amid eased social distancing

Entire employees of large-size supermarket Emart's Sangbong branch in Seoul's Jungnang District wait to have a COVID-19 test at the district office's COVID-19 checkup site, Friday, after three patients were discovered to have recently dropped by the store. Yonhap

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases fell sharply Friday, but health authorities are staying vigilant over possible cluster infections amid an eased social distancing scheme.

The country added 47 COVID-19 cases, including 41 domestic infections, raising the total caseload to 25,035, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The daily figure dropped sharply from 110 a day earlier when the country reported a new cluster infection at a nursing home in the southeastern port city of Busan with more than 50 cases.

It is the first time since Sept. 29 that the daily tally of COVID-19 has dropped below the 50 mark.

The country earlier suffered a major uptick in virus cases in mid-August, mostly traced to a conservative church in northern Seoul. The daily figure shot up to 441 on Aug. 27 and stayed in the triple digits until reaching 82 on Sept. 20.

The number of daily new COVID-19 cases has been staying around 100 this month, though health authorities are keeping their guard up, saying a resurgence in virus infections could happen anytime with sporadic outbreaks.

South Korea on Monday began to enforce Level 1 distancing, the lowest in its three-tier social distancing system. (Yonhap)