South Korea's new COVID-19 cases rose to over 50,000 on Tuesday from a nearly three-month low the previous day, as the country has sought to regain normalcy amid a recent gradual decrease in infections.

The country reported 51,131 new COVID-19 infections, including 45 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 17,346,753, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

Tuesday's count more than doubled from the previous day's 20,084. But it was still a marked drop from a week earlier when the figure stayed above 80,000.

The country experienced the worst virus wave over the fast spread of the highly contagious omicron variant, with the daily count soaring to over 620,000 in mid-March. But the figure has fallen to come below five-digits since April 21.

The country added 49 COVID-19 deaths Tuesday, down from Monday's 83, bringing the total to 23,007, the KDCA said. The fatality rate stood at 0.13 percent.

The number of critically ill patients came to 417, compared with 461 reported the previous day. The figure has been on the decline in recent days to come to 400s for four days in a row, according to the health authorities.

Some 25.2 percent of hospital beds reserved for seriously ill COVID-19 patients were occupied Tuesday, and the number of at-home treatment patients also fell nearly 40,000 to 280,030, the KDCA said.

In lne with the recent downward trend, the government has eased strict antivirus rules to support the people's return to normalcy.

On Monday, the government lifted the outdoor mask mandate after more than 18 months of enforcement, except for large gatherings of 50 or more.

Last month, the government also fully lifted private gathering limits and business hour curfews.

But mask wearing is still recommended when it is difficult for people to keep a 1-meter distance from each other at gatherings and in circumstances where lots of droplets of saliva could be expelled, such as shouting and singing.

The government also made it clear that indoor mask wearing needs to be in place for some time being.

As of midnight Monday, 44.55 million people, or 86.8 percent of the population, had been vaccinated with the first two shots, and 33.14 million people had received the first booster shots, representing 64.6 percent.

The number of those that got the second booster shots came to 2.2 million, which accounted for 4.4 percent of the country's total population, the KDCA said. (Yonhap)