Korea's new Covid-19 cases stayed below 20,000 for the second consecutive day Tuesday, as the virus trend continues to decline.

On Tuesday, Korea added 16,423 new Covid-19 infections, including 106 cases from abroad, bringing the total caseload to 24,848,184, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

While Tuesday's count is up from 12,150 reported on Monday, it was a significant drop from 39,410 a week earlier.

The nation also reported 19 more Covid-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 28,528. The fatality rate stood at 0.11 percent. The number of critically ill patients came to 353, down eight from the previous day.

With virus cases slowing down, Korea also removed the Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing requirement for inbound travelers on the first day of arrival, on Saturday.

Korea had been slowly lifting quarantine measures for overseas entrants, with health officials most recently removing the pre-travel Covid-19 test requirement from Sept. 3.

The authorities decided to lift the measure due to the low fatality rate of the BA.5, an Omicron subvariant and dominant strain in Korea, and the drop in imported cases rate among total cases in September (0.9 percent) compared to August (1.3 percent).

The government has also allowed in-person visits to nursing homes and senior care hospitals on Tuesday.

Mental illness treatment expands 12% in the wake of Covid-19

Meanwhile, a report showed that the number of people treated for mental illness in Korea increased by nearly 12 percent after the Covid-19 outbreak.

According to data by the National Health Insurance Service submitted to Rep. Choi Hye-young of the Democratic Party, the number of patients visiting hospitals due to mental illness increased from about 3.6 million in 2019 to about four million in 2021.

Notably, the proportion of those who received treatment for frequent mental illness among civil servants was high.

Last year, 51,513 out of 1,197,584 civil servants enrolled in the civil servant insurance system received frequent mental illness treatment, showing a 0.85 percentage point increase from 2019.

"The particularly high rate of workers suffering from mental illness means that Korea's working condition lacks consideration for the mental health of workers," Rep. Choi said.

According to the KDCA, about 44.68 million among 52 million Koreans have been fully vaccinated. In addition, about 33.6 million people had received their first booster shots, and 7.45 million had their second booster shots.