South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases dropped to the 30,000s on Monday for the first time in 76 days as most of the country's virus restrictions are lifted amid the slowdown of the omicron wave.

The country added 34,370 new COVID-19 infections, including 31 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 16,929,564, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The omicron wave has been on the decline after the country's daily infections reached the peak of 621,178 cases on March 17.

The death toll from COVID-19 came to 22,243, up 110 from the previous day. The fatality rate was 0.13 percent. The number of critically ill patients came to 668, down 53 from a day earlier.

To reflect the weakening pandemic, health authorities downgraded COVID-19 to the second-highest level of the four-tier infectious disease control system earlier in the day.

Of the locally transmitted infections, Seoul reported 4,763 cases and its surrounding Gyeonggi Province added 9,058 cases, the KDCA said.

As of midnight Sunday, 44.54 million, or 86.8 percent of the 52 million population, had been fully vaccinated, and 33.07 million, or 64.4 percent, had received their first COVID-19 booster shots, the KDCA said.

A total of 836,753 people, or 1.6 percent of the population, have received second booster shots across the country. Nearly 90 percent of them were aged 60 and older. (Yonhap)