South Korea's new COVID-19 cases remained below 70,000 for the second straight day Saturday, while new coronavirus-related deaths hit a three-month high.

The country reported 66,211 new COVID-19 infections, including 66 from overseas, bringing the total to 28,600,607, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

The number of newly infected cases is down from 68,168 a day earlier and 66,930 a week ago. The daily tally slightly decreased after hitting a three-month high Tuesday amid concerns about a possible wintertime surge of the virus.

The KDCA reported 70 more COVID-19 deaths, the most in three months, raising the death toll to 31,744.

The fatality rate stood at 0.12 percent for men and 0.11 for women.

The number of critically ill patients stood at 534, up by four from the previous day.

Despite the spread of the virus, the government on Friday announced plans to scrap the indoor mask mandate in phases and a set of criteria that need to be met to implement the mask-free policy.

The four criteria are a stable number of new infections, a downtrend in critically ill cases and deaths, medical response capabilities and a high vaccination rate among high-risk groups, with at least two of them needed to be reached for the government to put the policy in place.

Exceptions will be applied to crowded establishments like hospitals, community centers and nursing homes. (Yonhap)