Daily coronavirus cases fell to the 14-hundred range on Sunday as the nation is set to apply eased social distancing rules before gradually shifting to a "living with COVID-19" scheme next month.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, one-thousand-420 new COVID-19 cases were detected throughout Saturday, raising the accumulated caseload to 342-thousand-396.

The daily tally dropped by about 200 from the previous day, apparently due to fewer tests over the weekend. In general, the figure has been declining for three weeks since it peaked at three-thousand-270 on September 25 following the Chuseok holiday.

Of the new cases, one-thousand-403 were local transmissions while 17 were from overseas.

The capital region accounted for 78-point-five percent of local cases, reporting one-thousand-101 cases. Non-capital areas added 302 cases.

Sixteen deaths have been reported, raising the death toll to two-thousand-660. The fatality rate stands at zero-point-78 percent.

The number of critically ill patients dropped by 13 from the previous day to 348.