South Korea to relax outdoor mask mandate as COVID-19 slows

South Korea will ease its outdoor mask mandate starting next week as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations continue to decline

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea will ease its outdoor mask mandate starting next week as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations continue to decline.

Starting Monday, people will only be required to wear a mask outdoors when participating in gatherings of more than 50 people or attending sports and cultural events with potentially large crowds, health authorities said in a briefing Friday. The mask mandate for indoors and public transport will also remain in place.

Health workers have diagnosed a daily average of around 63,000 new cases in the past seven days, including 50,568 in the latest 24 hours — a drop-off from mid-March when the country was reporting hundreds of thousands of infections each day at the height of an omicron-driven surge. As hospitalizations and deaths slow, less than 30% of the country’s 2,800 intensive care units designated for COVID-19 patients are occupied.

South Korea had already removed much of its pandemic restrictions earlier this month, including a 10-person limit on private social gatherings, a midnight curfew at restaurants, coffee shops and bars and a ban on food consumption at movie theaters, concert halls and indoor sports venues.