People crowd a street in the popular tourist district of Myeongdong in central Seoul on May 24, 2023. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases hit nearly 23,000 on Wednesday, continuing its downward trend from a week earlier as the country is returning to pre-pandemic normalcy.
The country reported 22,961 new infection cases, including 40 imported cases, bringing the total caseload to 31,592,429, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
Wednesday’s count is down by 3,172 from a week earlier and a fall from 23,514 reported two weeks before, marking a steady decline in the daily infection numbers.
The country reported 17 COVID-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 34,719.
The number of critically ill patients came to 167, up by three from Tuesday, 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 will be reduced to five days as a recommendation, from the seven-day requirement.
(Yonhap)
