SEOUL– South Korea’s new daily COVID-19 cases fell for the fifth consecutive day Monday, as authorities remained vigilant against the highly contagious omicron subvariant during the summer vacation season.

The country added 59,046 new COVID-19 infections, including 406 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 22,299,377, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

Daily infections fell below the 100,000 level for the first time in six days, with cases steadily declining since Wednesday.

Monday’s tally is lower than the 62,056 from a week ago and 68,594 a month ago.

The country reported 65 new COVID-19 deaths, bringing the death toll to 26,109, the KDCA said. The fatality rate stood at 0.12 percent.

The number of critically ill patients came to 551, up from 531 the previous day.

As of 9 p.m. Monday, South Korea had reported 142,414 new cases, up 86,040 from the same time the previous day and 60,751 from a week before, on Liberation Day. Daily cases are counted until midnight and announced the following morning.

Case numbers are typically lower on weekends and holidays, as fewer tests are conducted. South Korea has reported 125,948 cases on daily average over the past seven days.

New infections showed decline on-week for the second straight day on Monday, raising cautious optimism that the latest virus wave may have passed its peak.

Of the locally transmitted cases, Seoul reported 7,395 new cases, and Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital added 15,000 new infections. Incheon, a port city just west of Seoul, identified 3,114 new cases. These three regions took up a total of 43.2 percent of the daily caseload.

Since the first local confirmation of the COVID-19 in Jan. 20, 2020, the country has gone through multiple major waves of the virus.

The latest wave came during the height of the summer vacation season, fueled by the highly transmissible omicron subvariant BA.5 and the eased virus curbs.

Source: Yonhap News Agency