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| People watch a performance at Changgyeonggung Palace in Seoul's Jongno District, Sunday. Newsis |
New COVID-19 cases fell below 20,000 for the first time in six days for Saturday in a downward trend in virus cases amid the government's effort to move the country back to pre-pandemic normalcy.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 19,298 infections, including 24 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 17,957,697.
The daily tally jumped to 35,104 cases May 16 from the previous day's 13,290 but continued to fall to 23,462 for Friday.
New infections here have been on a downward trend in recent weeks after peaking at over 620,000, March 17, amid the spread of the Omicron variant.
The KDCA said there were 54 more deaths putting the total at 23,965 for a fatality rate of 0.13 percent; while the number of critically ill patients fell to 229 from 235 a day earlier.
The government has lifted most of its virus restrictions, such as the cap on private gatherings and business curfews, as the decline in the virus cases has given a boost to its efforts to restore pre-pandemic normalcy.
However, the government announced Friday that it will push back the next relaxation steps, including the lifting of a seven-day quarantine mandate for COVID-19 patients, for another four weeks to June 20.
The administration is remaining cautious as another resurgence of the virus could hit the country in the summer and peak between September and October. If the quarantine requirement is scrapped, the caseload could bounce back by up to 4.5 times between June and July, according to a government forecast.
Of the locally transmitted cases, Gyeonggi Province accounted for 4,266, with Seoul taking up 2,899, and Incheon, 40 kilometers west of the capital, 796.
As of midnight Saturday, 44.57 million, or 86.9 percent of the population, had completed the full two-dose vaccinations, and 33.26 million, representing 64.8 percent, had received their first booster shots. More than 3.8 million people had gotten their second booster shots, the KDCA said. (Yonhap)
