South Korea's new coronavirus cases stayed below 20,000 for the second consecutive day Saturday as the country has been preparing to return to pre-pandemic normalcy, with new infections plateauing in recent months.

The country reported 18,106 cases, including 19 imported cases, bringing the total caseload to 31,524,477, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

Saturday's tally was down from 19,586 cases a day earlier and about 1,200 lower than a week ago.

The country added five COVID-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 34,670.

The number of critically ill patients came to 150, up six from the previous day, the KDCA said.

South Korea is set to downgrade the COVID-19 risk level to "alert" from "serious" next month, thereby removing the remaining antivirus measures, in line with the World Health Organization's declaration earlier this month that the COVID-19 global health emergency is over.