The recovery rate of patients infected with the new coronavirus topped 70 percent in South Korea amid a slowdown in new cases, data showed Sunday.

Since its first case on Jan. 20, the country has reported a total of 10,512 people confirmed infected with COVID-19, with 7,368 of them, or 70.1 percent, fully recovering and released from quarantine, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

The recovery rate topped 10 percent on March 15 and went above 30 percent on March 22. It surpassed the 50 percent mark on March 28, according to the KCDC.

The number of virus patients under treatment peaked at 7,470 on March 12 but fell sharply to 2,930 on Sunday, the health authorities said.

The country reported the largest daily number of cured people on March 26 when it released 414 recovered patients from quarantine. The daily number of patients released from quarantine in recent days has been under 200.

Health authorities in Daegu, where 65 percent of the country's total COVID-19 cases have been reported, said it takes about 25 days on average for a virus patient to be released from quarantine. The assessment was based on nearly 5,000 recovered people in the city.

Despite a rising recovery rate and a marked slowdown in new infections, the KCDC has been urging South Koreans to stay vigilant as the country's COVID-19 mortality rate has been on a steady increase.

South Korea's fatality rate of COVID-19 breached 2.04 percent Sunday. The country's death toll is now at 214.

The mortality rate was around 0.4 percent on March 1, but it increased to 1 percent on March 18.

In particular, the mortality rate of COVID-19 patients aged 80 or older was 21.47 percent, the highest among all age brackets. (Yonhap)