ANKARA

South Korea's COVID-19 cases are decreasing slowly as the country reported over 13,000 new cases on Monday, the lowest single-day infections in nearly four months, health authorities said.

In March, the country's daily coronavirus cases had topped 620,000 for the first time since 2020 following the omicron outbreak.

In the past 24 hours, South Korea registered 13,296 new cases, bringing the total number of infections to over 17.79 million, according to the Health Ministry data.

With 35 more fatalities, the death toll also rose to 23,744.

The health authorities are expected to decide on further relaxation in COVID-19 restrictions later this week amid a fall in cases.

"We're analyzing the quarantine indicators and situation regarding the preparations for the medical system. We are going to start the discussions within the government in earnest," Yonhap News Agency cited the central virus response team as saying.

So far, South Korea has fully vaccinated 44.56 million people, or 86.8% of its population, while 33.22 million people have received their first booster shots.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid