S. Korea's new COVID-19 cases stay below 30,000 for 2nd day amid virus slowdown

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases continued to stay below 30,000 Thursday as the country's virus curve has moved down in recent months.

The country reported 25,431 new COVID-19 infections, including 53 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 25,219,546, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

Thursday's figure is down 4,072 from a day ago. It also declined by around 1,500 from a week ago and 3,200 from two weeks ago.

The country reported 23 deaths from COVID-19 on Thursday, raising the death toll to 28,922. The fatality rate stood at 0.11 percent. The number of critically ill patients came to 249, up six from a day earlier, the KDCA said.

South Korea's virus curve has been on the general decline since peaking at over 180,000 cases on Aug. 17.

In response to the pandemic's slowdown, the government has eased antivirus restrictions, including lifting all outdoor mask mandates and the COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction testing requirement for inbound travelers to return to pre-pandemic normalcy.

Starting from November, the government will fully resume its visa-waiver program for 91 nations as a reciprocal measure, after suspending it in early 2020 to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.

Taiwan, Japan and Macao have recently allowed South Korean nationals to enter without visas. (Yonhap)