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| ▲ This photo taken on Feb. 12, 2023, shows a makeshift COVID-19 testing station in Seoul. (Yonhap) |
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S. Korea's new COVID-19 cases near 15,000 on gradual downtrend
SEOUL, Feb. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's new COVID-19 cases came to around 15,000 on Wednesday to log a marked on-week decline amid a gradual virus downtrend.
The country reported 14,957 new infection cases, including 19 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 30,384,701, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
It marked a slight growth from the previous day's 14,371 cases but was down around 20 percent from the previous week's 17,927 cases.
The KDCA reported 24 deaths from COVID-19, putting the death toll at 33,782.
The number of critically ill patients came to 228, down from 245 a day earlier.
The infection numbers have been on a steady decline despite concerns over a possible uptick following the removal of the indoor mask mandate late last month.
The authorities said that the virus situation has been managed in a stable manner, as the reproduction rate, which represents new infections estimated to stem from a single case, has been below 1 and the occupancy rate of hospital beds for serious patients remains at about 20 percent.
"But it is needed to boost the prescription of oral treatment pills to high-risk groups and vaccination for vulnerable groups," senior interior ministry official Kim Sung-ho said during a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters.
The government plans to double the number of pharmacies that provide coronavirus pills to around 6,000 by the end of this month and to provide related location information, the official said.
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