South Korea's leader has called on people not to panic about a major increase in COVID-19 infections as new daily cases surged past 170,000 for the first time.
Serious cases and deaths are at manageable levels despite record cases caused by the highly infectious Omicron variant, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum told a pandemic response meeting on Wednesday.
"Although our awareness and implementation of anti-COVID rules should not be loosened, there is no reason at all to fear or panic about the numbers of new cases as in the past," he said, according to a transcript.
South Korea reported 171,452 new cases for Tuesday, another daily record and a sharp increase from 99,573 a day before, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Wednesday.
Deaths have slowly ticked up, reaching a near-record 99 on Tuesday, but authorities said real-world data showed people infected with the Omicron variant are nearly 75 per cent less likely to develop serious illness or die than those who contract the Delta variant.
A study by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) of some 67,200 infections confirmed since December showed Omicron's severity and death rates averaged 0.38 per cent and 0.18 per cent, respectively, compared with 1.4 per cent and 0.7 per cent for the Delta cases.
About 56 per cent of 1073 people who died over a five-week period were either unvaccinated or had received only one dose, the study showed, with people aged 60 or older accounting for 94 per cent of deaths, officials said on Monday.
More than 86 per cent of South Korea's 52 million population have been double-vaccinated and nearly 60 per cent have received a booster.
South Korea has approved Pfizer's vaccine for children aged 5-11, the country's food and drug ministry said on Wednesday.
Kim said social distancing rules will be relaxed after the current wave peaks, which some experts estimate may come in mid-March.
"Omicron's spread is still racing to its peak, but once it is assured that severe cases and deaths can be stably managed, we will reform the broad framework of our anti-virus quarantine policy including social distancing," he said.
Current rules include mask mandates for public places, vaccine passes for certain locations and events, a six-person limit on private gatherings, a 10pm curfew for eateries and a seven-day quarantine for international arrivals.
South Korea has reported 2.3 million cases since the pandemic began, with 7607 deaths.