South Korea's new coronavirus cases reduced to double digits

Prime Minister Jung Sye-kyun attends the COVID-19 central disaster counter-measure meeting at Government Complex Seoul, Nov. 6. Yonhap

New COVID-19 cases fell below 100 in Korea for Friday for the first time in four days as the health authorities introduced a revised social distancing system.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 89 infections, raising the total caseload to 27,284, and one more fatality bringing the death toll to 477.

The number of new cases had stayed in the triple digits daily through Thursday.

Of the 89, local infections stood at 72, while the rest were imported.

The greater Seoul area ― home to half of South Korea's 51 million population ― accounted for 51 out of 72 locally transmitted cases.

The country had seen a recent uptick in the number of daily cases due to sporadic infection clusters at nursing homes and hospitals, as well as group transmissions at private gatherings of families and friends.

Of the 17 imported cases ― which raised the cumulative total to 3,907 ― 11 were foreigners and six were South Koreans, and they arrived here from the United States, Russia, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, France, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Algeria, Liberia and Ghana.

The KDCA said the total number of people released from quarantine after recovering from the coronavirus stood at 24,910, up 89 from the previous day.

Also Saturday, the country shifted to a five-tier social distancing system from the previous three-tier model, to enforce more detailed and regionally tailored antivirus guidelines while mitigating the impact on businesses.

Currently, the nation is under Level 1 guidelines, except the central city of Cheonan and the adjacent Asan, where social distancing rules were raised to Level 1.5 earlier this week amid a surge in cases there.

Level 1 ― the lowest in the five-tier system ― signifies a controllable level of transmission that allows people to carry on with their ordinary lives while wearing masks and following social distancing rules at designated facilities.

Under Level 1.5, use of multiuse facilities is restricted. At Level 2, the pandemic is considered to be spreading nationwide, and nonessential outdoor visits and gatherings are discouraged in the affected zones.

Level 2.5 will be put in place when the situation is considered to be exceeding the health system's routine response levels, and the government will urge the public to remain at home.

At Level 3, which will be imposed in the event that more than 800 new daily cases are reported in a week, the nation will effectively be placed under lockdown. (Yonhap)