South Korea's new coronavirus cases remained below 10,000 for the eighth day in a row Friday, as the spread of the coronavirus is apparently slowing down.

The country added 7,198 COVID-19 infections, including 68 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,263,643, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

The country reported nine COVID-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 24,416. The fatality rate stood at 0.13 percent.

The number of critically ill patients came to 82, down from 98 the previous day, the KDCA said.

Of the 7,130 locally transmitted cases, Seoul accounted for 1,277 cases, with the surrounding Gyeonggi Province reporting 1,716 cases. There were 265 infections in Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul.

South Korea's COVID-19 cases have been trending downward since they peaked at an all-time high of over 620,000 in mid-March.

Earlier in the day, the government extended the seven-day quarantine mandate for COVID-19 patients for four more weeks over concerns about a resurgence of the virus.

The current level of virus spread is within the country's capacity to manage, but infection concerns linger and the number of COVID-19 deaths has not sufficiently reduced, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said in a virus response meeting.

"Easing the quarantine mandate could advance the timing of a virus resurgence and expand the scale of damage," Han said.

The government plans to reassess the infection situation every four weeks and will decide whether to lift the quarantine mandate for COVID-19 patients, he said.

As of Friday, 44.61 million, or 86.9 percent of the population, had completed the full two-dose vaccinations, and 33.34 million, or 65 percent, had received their first booster shots.

About 4.30 million people, or 8.4 percent of the population, had gotten their second booster shots, the KDCA said. (Yonhap)