New COVID-19 cases below 400,000 for 3rd day amid omicron wave

SEOUL. KAZINFORM South Korea's new daily COVID-19 cases stayed below 400,000 for the third consecutive day Saturday, as the spread of the highly transmissible omicron variant continues amid eased virus curbs.

The country added 335,580 new COVID-19 infections, including 49 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 11,497,711, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said, Yonhap reports.

Saturday's tally is down from 339,514 the previous day. South Korea has seen the average count trend downward over the past week, with the numbers coming in at about 357,000 compared with around 405,000 tallied a week earlier.

The death toll from COVID-19 was 323, down 70 from Friday. The fatality rate stood at 0.13 percent.

The number of critically ill patients came to 1,164, up 79 from the previous day.

South Korea is experiencing the worst wave of the pandemic, surpassing the grim milestone of 10 million total infections earlier this week. Nearly 9 million cases have been reported since early February. The daily caseload surged to an all-time high of 621,205 on March 17.