SEOUL. KAZINFORM — New COVID-19 cases in South Korea fell to their lowest point in more than five months on Monday, in part due to the drop over the weekend, a clear indication of the slowdown in the spread of omicron, Yonhap reports.
The country has added 3,538 new COVID-19 infections, 96 from abroad, bringing the total number of cases to 18,280,090, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
Monday’s figure is the lowest since the 3,094 reported on Jan. 11. The number of daily infections has a downward trend on Mondays due to the minimal number of tests.
The KDCA reported 10 more deaths due to COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 24,451. The mortality rate was 0. 13%.
The number of critically ill patients rose to 72, up from 70 the day before.
The slowdown in the omicron trend has boosted the number of infections, most commonly in the four-digit range, since earlier this month, after the country emerged from the worst wave that pushed cases to more than 620,000 by mid-March.
But last Friday, the government maintained the seven-day self-isolation mandate for COVID-19 patients for another four weeks until July 17, bringing up the dangers of a new resurgence of the virus.
Lifting the self-isolation mandate would mean a vital step in efforts to return to pre-pandemic normalcy, as South Korea removed maximum social distancing restrictions, with the exception of the mask mandate, in mid-April.
Officials said weekly deaths are expected to remain below one hundred and the death rate will have to fall below 0. 1 percent for the isolation rule to be lifted.