S. Korea’s daily COVID-19 deaths drop under 50

South Korea’s daily COVID-19 deaths dropped below 50 for the first time in about two months, government data showed Tuesday.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the number of deaths from COVID-19 reported during the 24 hours for Monday came to 49, down from the previous day’s 83. The death toll came to 23,007, and the fatality rate stood at 0.13 percent.

During the same period, the country reported 51,131 daily COVID-19 infections, bringing the total caseload to 17,346,753.

The daily COVID-19 count more than doubled from 20,084 infections reported a day earlier. However, this was mainly due to more people receiving COVID-19 tests after the weekend.

The number of COVID-19 infections on Monday was down from 80,361 a week ago and 118,504 two weeks prior.

The number of critically ill patients came to 417, compared with 461 reported the previous day. The figure has been remaining under 500 for the fourth consecutive day.

Amid the weakening pandemic, South Korea on Monday lifted the outdoor mask mandate for the first time in some 18 months since the government introduced the antivirus measure in October 2020.

Mask wearing is currently not required in most public outdoor settings, except places where more than 50 people can be seated.

As the government signals a return to normal, people are expected to increase their outdoor activities in the following days.

The number of visitors to the resort island of Jeju over the upcoming weekend, for example, is expected to reach some 200,000, up 18.2 percent on-year, according to the Jeju Tourism Association.

Moviegoers are also returning to local theaters. The number of people who booked tickets in advance for the highly anticipated “Doctor Strange” sequel reached some 820,000 as of Tuesday, setting the highest advance booking rate for the 2020-2022 period.

Meanwhile, South Korean health authorities said Tuesday that they found a patient infected with omicron’s latest subvariant BA.2.12.1, responsible for about one-fourth of COVID-19 cases in the US.

The patient was confirmed positive on April 17, a day after she arrived in South Korea from the US. However, health authorities added they have not found other patients infected with the new variant since then.

The government said it would strengthen monitoring of visitors to the country, as the new omicron variant could potentially influence how the pandemic develops here in the future.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)