The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases among young students has been on the decline in accordance with their rising vaccination rate, the beginning of winter break and a downward trend in the nation's total infections, the government said Monday.

According to the education ministry, the daily average of virus infections among kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school students from last Thursday to Sunday was 487.3.

The daily average for students peaked at 963.9 from Dec. 9-15 before decreasing to 958.9 from Dec. 16-22 and 770.9 from Dec. 23-29, the ministry said.

By school level, elementary schools had the highest infection rate of 10.7 persons per 100,000 during the latest four days, followed by 8.1 infected persons for middle schools and 3.8 infected persons for high schools, it noted.

Ministry officials explained school density has been lowered due to authorities' strict social distancing measures and many schools went on winter vacation recently.

In addition, the vaccination rate among middle and high school students has been rising, they said.

Indeed, the primary vaccination rate for 12 to 17-year-olds had reached 75 percent as of midnight Friday, with their second dose completion rate rising to 50.7 percent.

The ministry said it aims for a return to normalcy in the education sector with the start of a new semester in March.

"The goal is to start in-person classes at all schools in the new semester," said a ministry official. (Yonhap)