On Monday, Korea's daily Covid-19 tally dropped to its lowest level since mid-January, when the Omicron variant had yet to go into full swing.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency confirmed 6,139 new infections, bringing the total caseload to 18,086,462. The number of new virus cases reported was the lowest since Jan. 19, when the KDCA confirmed 5,804 cases.

Given that the Omicron strain became the dominant strain during the week of Jan. 16-22 with an average of 5,431 cases, health officials noted daily virus cases have fallen to a level similar to the early Omicron days.

The number of deaths and severe cases has also decreased significantly.

The death toll came to 24,167, up only nine from the previous day, with a fatality rate of 0.13 percent. According to the KDCA, it is also the first time in about seven months that the number of deaths per day dropped to a single-digit figure since Nov. 1, when the previous government kicked off its plan to return to normalcy gradually.

The number of patients with severe cases was 178, down 10 from Sunday, remaining below 200 for three days since Saturday.

Despite the declining prevalence of Covid-19, experts agreed that the spread of Covid-19 will restart when immunity decreases.

"Koreans currently have strong immunity against the Covid-19 virus as most people have received the vaccine or tested positive for the virus," said Cheong Ki-seok, a pulmonary disease professor at Hallym University College of Medicine. "It will be fine for the time being, but immunity will start to drop from September."

Worse yet, regardless of immunity, epidemics mostly resurge during the winter, Cheong added.

The professor explained that there is a possibility that the pandemic will come again when immunity is weakened and people have looser awareness of the virus.

Professor Eom Joong-sik, an infectious disease expert at Gachon University Gil Medical Center, agreed.

"Given that the immunity acquired by the Omicron pandemic, which peaked in March, lasts for about three months, Korea is unlikely to see another spread in early July," Eom said, adding that the timing of a resurgence depends on the duration of immunity.

"If immunity is maintained for three months, another outbreak will start in late July or early August and peak again in August or September," Eom said. "If immunity lasts up to six months, the peak will come in November or December."

Quarantine officials also predicted that a medium-size wave could come due to increased air conditioner use in the summer.

"We believe that the summer resurgence is related to an enclosed environment in which indoor ventilation becomes difficult due to air conditioners," said Son Young-rae, head of the social strategy division of the Central Accident Resolving Headquarters of the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

The health authorities have seen a moderate-scale trend curve for the past two years, predicting a similar scale trend curve this year.

"However, we believe that the impact of air conditioning will not be critical as it wasn't a big factor in the past two years," Son said. "Also, while the likelihood of an increase in cases due to air conditioning is high, it is difficult to predict exactly how large the size of the wave will be."

According to KDCA, about 44.58 million people have been fully vaccinated, or 86.9 percent of the 52-million population. In addition, about 33.29 million people had received their first booster shots, representing 64.9 percent, and 4.05 million people had their second booster shots.