South Korea's new COVID-19 cases dipped to the lowest Sunday tally in almost three months, as the government has stepped up efforts to contain the inflow from China.

A total of 32,570 additional coronavirus infections, including 104 cases from overseas, have been confirmed nationwide, bringing the total caseload to 29,806,891, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

The tally marked the lowest for any Sunday since Oct. 30, when the country reported 34,491 new cases. It is down by around 14,000 cases from a week ago.

The country added 37 COVID-19 deaths, bringing the death toll to 32,949. The number of critically ill patients came to 499, down from 505 the previous day, the KDCA said.

The South Korean government has ramped up monitoring for overseas visitors amid the recent surge in infections in China following the lifting of its zero-COVID policy in December.

Of the 104 new cases of overseas infections reported Saturday, 64 were from China, the public health agency said.

Earlier this month, Seoul rolled out a policy requiring travelers from China, Hong Kong and Macao to produce negative polymerase chain reaction test results before boarding their plane in a bid to slow the overseas inflow of the virus. Travelers coming from China need to undergo post-entry polymerase chain reaction tests as well.

In apparent retaliation against the measures, China suspended new short-term visa issuance for South Koreans. (Yonhap)