S. Korea's daily COVID-19 cases stay below 400,000 for 2nd day

▲ People wait in a long line to receive coronavirus tests at a makeshift COVID-19 testing facility in Seoul on March 19, 2022. The country reported 381,454 new infections on the day. (Yonhap)

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S. Korea's daily COVID-19 cases stay below 400,000 for 2nd day

SEOUL, March 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's new COVID-19 cases dropped below 400,000 for the second straight day on Sunday but concerns remain high that infections could spike again as the government is set to ease social distancing rules this week.

The country reported 334,708 new COVID-19 infections, including 22 from overseas, raising the total caseload to 9,373,646, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

The latest tally was down from the previous day's daily cases of 381,454. It also marked a sharp drop from the all-time high of 621,281 reported Thursday.

It is still uncertain as to whether daily infections have been trending down, given that cases tend to decline over the weekend due to fewer tests.

The death toll from COVID-19 came to 12,428, up 327 from Saturday. The fatality rate was 0.13 percent.

The number of critically ill patients stood at 1,033, down from 1,049 tallied the previous day.

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