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| People line up in front of Dongdaemun Gate, designated as National Treasure No. 1, in Seoul's Jongno District, Oct. 22, to take coronavirus tests at a nearby screening center. Yonhap |
South Korea saw its new daily COVID-19 infections rise slightly for Friday, but the numbers stayed below 2,000 for the 15th straight day, as the country's vaccination rate is nearing a key milestone of 70 percent.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 1,508 new cases, including 1,487 local ones, raising the total caseload to 350,476. Friday's tally is up from the 1,439 counted the previous day.
Twenty more deaths were also reported, raising the toll to 2,745.
Daily virus caseloads tend to fluctuate depending on the number of coronavirus tests, which generally decrease during weekends and holidays.
Although South Korea has logged more than 1,000 daily cases since early July, it is seeing a downward trend in infections after the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic peaked in late September.
The average daily number of confirmed cases during the Oct. 10 to 16 period was 1,562, down 20.3 percent from the previous week, according to KDCA data released earlier this week.
Of the locally transmitted cases, 546 were in Seoul, 512 in the surrounding Gyeonggi Province and 106 in Incheon, 40 kilometers west of the capital.
The number of patients released following treatment after making a recovery stood at 322,536, up 2,219 from the previous day, the KDCA said.
As of Saturday, 69.4 percent of the country's 52 million population were fully vaccinated, while 79.3 percent had received their first shots.
With accelerating inoculations, South Korea is gearing up to return to some semblance of normalcy.
The government has said it will introduce its "Living with COVID-19" plan when 70 percent of the country's population and 80 percent of all South Korean adults have been fully vaccinated.
On Friday, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said the government will begin its exit strategies from the pandemic in a gradual manner, adding that restrictions will first be removed for small businesses hit hard by strict social distancing rules.
He said the government's new coronavirus response will focus more on the prevention of severe hospitalizations and deaths, rather than on infections. (Yonhap)
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