South Korea began to ease its social distancing rules on Monday even as the country remains a global COVID-19 hot spot with the number of new infections expected to peak later this week.

The country, whose total caseload is nearing the 10-million mark, has introduced moderated social distancing guidelines until April 3, according to an announcement last week by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which projected the imminent peak in daily infections.

Under the new guideline, the limit on private gatherings was raised to eight people from the previous six. An 11 pm business curfew remains unchanged.

The infections are being fueled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

On Monday, the country reported 209,169 new COVID-19 cases, raising the national caseload to 9,582,815, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, or KDCA. The number was a sharp decline from the all-time high of over 600,000 recorded on March 17.

The number of new daily infections is usually lower at the beginning of the week due to fewer virus tests over the weekend.

The number of critically ill patients was 1,130, up 97 from the previous day.

The death toll reached 12,757, up 329 from Sunday, while the fatality rate remained at 0.13 percent.

Some 86.6 percent of South Korea's 52 million people have been fully vaccinated and 63.1 percent of people have received a third jab, KDCA data showed.

The fatality rate for February dropped significantly to 0.09 percent, compared with January's 0.31 percent, said the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The rate of critical cases also decreased, to 0.16 percent from 0.63 percent.

Compared with the fourth wave of infections in December, the number of critically ill patients has increased by only 1.3 times, while the number of infections, as of March 17, had soared by 79 times. The ministry said the main reason is that people infected with the Omicron variant tend to show mild or no symptoms.

Nevertheless, the ministry still expects the utilization rate of facilities such as intensive care unit beds to increase further in late March and early April.

Quarantine free

On Monday, South Korea also lifted its nearly two-years-long policy of quarantine for international travelers as it stopped requiring a seven-day self-quarantine for fully vaccinated visitors－except for those from Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Myanmar.

Those deemed fully vaccinated have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine over a defined period, as well as those who have received booster shots.

Kim Moon-kyu, clinical professor of the Department of Pediatrics at Yonsei University in Seoul, said it was encouraging to see a small decline after the seven-day average of cases kept rising for two months, but that it is still hard to predict just when the country would pass its peak.

"Even if we pass this peak, we need to be vigilant because we don't know whether a new variant might emerge and we also have to care about the ICU situation," Kim Moon-kyu told South Korean TV network Arirang News on Monday.

Kim Woo-joo, professor of infectious diseases at Korea University Guro Hospital, said on March 17 that the government's move of easing pandemic controls was dangerous.

Noting influenza causes about 2,000 to 3,000 deaths a year in South Korea, Kim Woo-joo said the deaths from COVID-19 have already exceeded 10,000.

"The government says the fatality rate (of COVID-19) is similar to that of influenza, but such remarks may make the public less cautious about the disease," said Kim Woo-joo, adding that South Korea has the world's highest number of daily new infections per million population.

Globally, there were nearly 465 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, with more than 6 million deaths as of Friday, according to the World Health Organization.