SEOUL – South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases fell for a third consecutive day to stay below 30,000 on Friday, as the government pushed back the plan to relax more virus restrictions, citing the continuing omicron wave and possible spread of other variants, Yonhap news agency reported.
The country added 25,125 new COVID-19 infections, including 22 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 17,914,957, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
The daily counts have steadily declined this week, from 35,113 on Tuesday to 28,130 on Thursday, apart from the Monday tally of 13,292.
The infection numbers tend to fall sharply on Mondays due to fewer tests.
The highly transmissible omicron wave has peaked in South Korea after the daily count hit over 620,000 in mid-March.
The country added 43 deaths from COVID-19 on Friday, putting the total at 23,885, with the fatality rate standing at 0.13 percent.
The number of critically ill patients came to 251, down from the previous day’s 274.
