South Korea reported 18 new coronavirus infections Friday, bringing the tally to 10,653, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday. 

The number of new infections was the lowest since Feb. 20, when it was 16. After that the daily tallies escalated in the hundreds throughout March, but they dropped markedly in early April and has since remained between 20 and 30.

Of the 18 new infections, five occurred in the southeastern city of Daegu and adjacent North Gyeongsang Province, four in Gyeonggi Province, one each in Seoul and Incheon and the rest in other areas. Half were imported cases.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun advised people to continue following the social distancing guidelines, limiting outdoor activities to essential purposes such as grocery shopping.

He called the next two weeks -- which include two major holidays, Buddha’s Birthday and Children’s Day -- "critical in containing COVID-19," because people showing few or no symptoms could spread the virus during this time and cause another wave of domestic transmission.

Meanwhile, Korean health authorities said the strict social distancing campaign had curbed the spread of the highly communicable respiratory disease. But, they warned it did not mean the virus had disappeared or that life could return to normal, because of unmapped transmission paths and infection clusters.

Health authorities said they would roll out new guidance Sunday and would decide whether to press ahead with the intensive social distancing campaign and its other stringent precautions to stop the spread of COVID-19.

The authorities added that it was still crucial that people maintain a safe distance from each other at least over the weekend to minimize potential infections.

The COVID-19 death toll rose to 233, up three from a day earlier. Most of the patients who died had prior health conditions before contracting the disease and the fatality rate was 2.18 percent.

By Choi Si-young (siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com)