SEOUL– South Korea’s new coronavirus cases remained below 10,000 for the eighth day in a row Friday, as the spread of the coronavirus is apparently slowing down.
The country added 7,198 COVID-19 infections, including 68 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,263,643, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
The country reported nine COVID-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 24,416. The fatality rate stood at 0.13 percent.
The number of critically ill patients came to 82, down from 98 the previous day, the KDCA said.
Of the 7,130 locally transmitted cases, Seoul accounted for 1,277 cases, with the surrounding Gyeonggi Province reporting 1,716 cases. There were 265 infections in Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul.
South Korea’s COVID-19 cases have been trending downward since they peaked at an all-time high of over 620,000 in mid-March.
Earlier in the day, the government extended the seven-day quarantine mandate for COVID-19 patients for four more weeks over concerns about a resurgence of the virus.
The current level of virus spread is within the country’s capacity to manage, but infection concerns linger and the number of COVID-19 deaths has not sufficiently reduced, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said in a virus response meeting.
“Easing the quarantine mandate could advance the timing of a virus resurgence and expand the scale of damage,” Han said.
Health authorities said the daily caseload could surge 8.3 times if the mandate is lifted and that benefits from maintaining the policy are believed to far outweigh those from lifting it.
The government plans to reassess the infection situation every four weeks and will decide whether to lift the quarantine mandate for COVID-19 patients, Han said, after taking into consideration six key factors, including the number of deaths and the fatality rate.
In order for the mandate to be lifted, weekly deaths must be under 100, while the fatality rate needs to be maintained at below 0.1 percent, according to the KDCA.
The mandate will be kept in place until July 17.
As part of efforts to move on from the pandemic, the prime minister said the government will allow in-person meetings at nursing homes and senior care hospitals regardless of vaccination status.
Additionally, elderly people who have received a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine will be allowed to freely leave such facilities.
While the nation’s COVID-19 situation has continued to stabilize, the country “is not completely out of danger,” the prime minister said.
“Even if the restrictions are lifted, please follow the containment rules thoroughly to protect yourself from COVID-19” he said.
As of Friday, 44.61 million, or 86.9 percent of the population, had completed the full two-dose vaccinations, and 33.34 million, or 65 percent, had received their first booster shots.
About 4.3 million people, or 8.4 percent of the population, had gotten their second booster shots, according to the KDCA.
Source: Yonhap News Agency