The government plans to completely lift the remaining obligation to wear face masks outdoors as early as this week, as the Covid-19 viral wave is slowing down.
Although the government lifted the obligation to wear face masks outdoors in May, it kept mandatory outdoor masks when participating in gatherings with more than 50 people.
However, health experts said the rules are ineffective because it is difficult to check whether there are more than 50 people. Besides, the government allows food consumption at sports stadiums where many people gather.
The National Advisory Committee for the Infectious Disease Crisis Response Committee, a group of advisors on infectious disease policies, discussed the matter on Wednesday and delivered the opinion of completely removing outdoor face masks.
Still, experts inside the government's infectious disease advisory committee have split opinions over the removal of indoor masks.
While the committee formed a consensus on lifting the indoor mask duty, it remains divided regarding specific details such as the time frame.
Also, even if the government lifts the duty to wear indoor masks, there is a high possibility it will maintain mandatory indoor masks at high-risk facilities and medical institutions.
"Members of the National Advisory Committee for the Infectious Disease Crisis Response Committee all agreed that the need to ease rules regarding face masks was very high," Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) Commissioner Peck Kyong-ran said. "We will announce the detailed plans as soon as possible."
On Thursday, the KDCA confirmed 33,009 new Covid-19 infections, including 326 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 24,535,940.
The daily figure is the lowest of all Thursday tallies since July 7, when cases dropped to 18,494.
"The weekly caseload for the second week of September more than halved to 55,000 a day on average from 128,000 a day in the third week of August," Peck said. "The summer season resurgence continued for about eight weeks, and we're seeing a declining trend for the past four weeks now after the virus wave passed its peak."
Health authorities expected that the spread of the virus will maintain its current pace as long as there are no new variants.
The country reported 59 deaths, putting the death toll at 28,009, the KDCA said. The fatality rate stood at 0.11 percent. The number of critically ill patients remained high at 428, down 66 from the previous day.
According to the KDCA, about 44.67 million among 52 million Koreans have been fully vaccinated. In addition, about 33.58 million people had received their first booster shots, and 7.38 million had their second booster shots.