| Election officials clad in protective gear await COVID-19 patients and those in quarantine at a polling station in Seoul, May 28, the final day of two days of early voting for the June 1 local elections. Yonhap |
New COVID-19 cases stayed below 20,000 for the fourth consecutive day Saturday, as the Omicron-fueled spread of the coronavirus has slowed in recent weeks.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 12,654, including 26 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,080,323.
The number of critically ill patients stood at 188, the lowest figure in more than 10 months.
The KDCA recorded 19 more deaths, bringing the total caseload to 24,158 for a fatality rate of 0.13 percent.
South Korea has seen a gradual decrease in new cases over the past several weeks, after the pandemic driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant peaked in mid-March when the daily caseload spiked to over 621,000.
As of Saturday, 44.58 million, or 86.9 percent of the population, had completed the full two-dose vaccination protocol, and 33.29 million, representing 64.9 percent, had received their first booster shots.
More than 4.05 million people, or 7.9 percent, have had their second boosters, the KDCA said. (Yonhap)