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| Health officials are seen at a COVID-19 testing center in central Seoul, April 24, as the Omicron wave of the coronavirus continues to slow down. |
Korea's daily new COVID-19 cases dropped to the 30,000s, Sunday, for the first time in 76 days, as most of the country's virus restrictions were lifted amid the slowdown of the Omicron wave.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 34,370 new infections, including 31 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 16,929,564.
The Omicron wave has been on the decline after the country's daily infections reached the peak of 621,178 cases, March 17.
The death toll came to 22,243, up 110 from the previous day for a fatality rate of 0.13 percent; while the number of critically ill patients came to 668, down 53.
To reflect the weakening pandemic, the health authorities downgraded COVID-19 to the second-highest level in their four-tier infectious disease control system early Monday.
Of the locally transmitted infections, Gyeonggi Province added 9,058 and Seoul reported 4,763 cases, the KDCA said.
As of midnight Sunday, 44.54 million, or 86.8 percent of the 52 million population, had been fully vaccinated, and 33.07 million, or 64.4 percent, had received their first COVID-19 booster shots, the KDCA said.
A total of 836,753 people, or 1.6 percent of the population, have received second booster shots across the country. Nearly 90 percent of them were aged 60 and older. (Yonhap)
