South Korea reported 451 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, the smallest gain in 41 days, indicating a slowdown in the third wave of the epidemic.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said Monday that the new cases raised the country's accumulated caseload to 69-thousand-114. 

The daily figure fell to the 400 range for the first time since December 1 when it marked 451 right before the resurgence of the virus. 
 
Of the new cases detected throughout Sunday, 419 were local transmissions and 32 were imported cases. 

By region, about 300 cases come from the greater metro area with 137 in Seoul, 142 in Gyeonggi Province and 18 in Incheon. In other parts of the nation, Busan recorded 16 new cases, Daegu ten and Gwangju 24.

Fifteen more deaths were reported, raising the country's death toll to one-thousand-140. The fatality rate stands at one-point-65 percent. 

The number of critically ill patients dropped by six to 395.