A COVID-19 testing center in Seoul is empty on Feb. 26, 2023. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases hit the lowest tally in eight months Monday amid a gradual virus downtrend.
The country reported 4,026 new COVID-19 infections, including 15 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 30,502,904, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
The virus has been spreading more slowly, despite the removal of the indoor mask mandate late last month.
Monday’s tally is down 298 from the previous week and is less than half of the total caseload reported a day earlier, the KDCA data showed. It is the lowest daily tally since June 27, when the country reported 3,419 cases.
Over the past four weeks, South Korea’s daily average tally has dropped around 15 percent every week, according to Jung Ki-suck, chair of the task force on COVID-19.
“We expect the average daily caseload to drop under 10,000 soon. We also project the winter wave, which started around Oct. 19, to end soon,” he said during a regular briefing.
Jung expressed concern the country is seeing a gradual rise in the fatality rate and the proportion of people turning into severely ill patients from the pandemic recently.
The proportion of critically ill patients grew from 0.17 percent late January to 0.27 percent in the first week of February, health authorities said. More than 90 percent of the critically ill patients are seniors over 60, Jung said.
The country’s fatality rate has also grown from 0.08 percent late last year to 0.1 percent.
On Monday, South Korea added 15 deaths, bringing the death toll to 33,961. The number of critically ill patients stood at 163, down from the previous day’s 168.
The KDCA also said it will announce the daily caseloads for Sundays and holidays the next day, starting Monday, to reflect the stabilizing trend in infections.
(Yonhap)
