People walk on a crowded street in the famous tourist district of Myeongdong in central Seoul on May 21, 2023. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases stayed below 20,000 on Thursday, a mild drop from a week ago, extending the downtrend as the country is regaining pre-pandemic normalcy.
The country reported 19,080 new infection cases, including 24 imported cases, bringing the total caseload to 31,611,509, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
Thursday’s count is down by 2,713 from a week earlier and a drop from 20,567 reported two weeks before, continuing the moderate decline in the daily infection numbers.
The country reported 17 COVID-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 34,736.
The number of critically ill patients came to 173, up by six from Wednesday, the KDCA said.
Health authorities are set to downgrade the national crisis level for COVID-19 to “alert” from “serious” next week. Starting June 1, the mask mandate will only be applied to hospitals with inpatient rooms and residential-type high-risk facilities.
The mandatory isolation period also will be reduced to five days as a recommendation, from the seven-day requirement.
(Yonhap)
