Seoul, April 29 (BNA): South Korea will ease the mandate for outdoor masks starting next week as COVID-19 cases and hospital admissions continue to decline, according to the Associated Press.
Beginning Monday, health authorities said at a briefing on Friday that people will be required to wear a mask outdoors only when participating in gatherings of more than 50 people or attending sporting and cultural events with potentially large crowds. The mask mandate indoors and on public transportation will also remain in effect.
Health workers have diagnosed a daily average of about 63,000 new cases in the past seven days, including 50,568 cases in the last 24 hours — a drop from mid-March when the country was reporting hundreds of thousands of infections each day at the height of an Omicron-driven rush.
With hospitalizations and deaths slowing, less than 30% of the country’s 2,800 intensive care units designated for COVID-19 patients are filled.
insult