As the Omicron variant recedes and daily infections drop to a more than two-month low of less than 50,000, South Korea dropped practically all of its COVID-19 safeguards on Monday, marking a major step toward a return to normalcy.

A midnight curfew on restaurants and other establishments, as well as a limit of 10 persons allowed to meet, were repealed. Snacks will be permitted in theatres and other indoor public venues such as stadiums beginning next week.

People are still required to wear masks, however, with the government planning to review whether to lift a rule for masks
outdoors in two weeks.The relaxation of the rules come as the number of coronavirus cases in South Korea fell to 47,743 on Monday, the lowest since February 9, after hovering at more than 620,000 a day in mid-March.

Some rules, however, remain including mandatory quarantine for unvaccinated inbound travelers and negative PCR tests for the fully vaccinated.

South Korea has largely managed to limit deaths and critical cases through widespread vaccination, and it has scaled back the aggressive tracing and containment efforts that made it a mitigation success story from most of the first two years of the
pandemic.

Nearly 87 percent of the 52 million population are fully vaccinated, with 64 percent having also had a booster, according to Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency data.

In line with the easing of the rules, companies are gradually returning to their offices.

Most staff at giant steelmaker POSCO have returned to their offices this month, becoming one of the first major firms to bring people back.

LG Electronics said it had reduced the proportion of employees working from home to 30 percent from 50 percent from Monday, while scrapping a limit on the number of people allowed in meetings.

Samsung Electronics said it had yet to implement its back-to-office plan and the public sector is also awaiting new government guidelines.

The Bank of Korea, which has 30 percent of its head office staff working from home, is considering easing its guidelines, officials said.

The government had recommended workplaces with 300 or more employees adopt flexible working hours and have 10 percent of staff work from home.