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South Korea reported 100 more cases of the COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago as of midnight Wednesday local time, raising the total number of infections to 9,137.
The newly confirmed cases reached 100, after staying below 100 for the past three days. Of the new cases, 34 were imported from abroad.
Six more deaths were confirmed, lifting the death toll to 126. The total fatality rate came in at 1.38 percent.
A total of 223 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 3,730. The number of recoveries kept surpassing new infections.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) has updated the data once a day at 10:00 a.m. local time from March 10, after having announced it twice a day.
The virus infection soared for the past weeks, with 9,106 new cases reported from Feb. 19 to March 24. The country has raised its four-tier virus alert to the highest "red" level.
The total number of infections in Daegu, about 300 km southeast of Seoul, and its surrounding North Gyeongsang province increased to 6,456 and 1,262 respectively. It accounted for about 84 percent of the total.
The numbers in Seoul and its adjacent Gyeonggi province came to 347 and 387 each.
Daegu became the epicenter of the viral spread here as the biggest cluster of infections was found in the metropolis with a 2.5 million population. Daegu has been designated by the government as a "special disaster zone."
The Daegu cluster was closely linked to the church services of a homegrown minor religious sect, called Sincheonji, in Daegu. Members of the sect are known to sit on the floor closely side by side during church services.
Since Jan. 3, the country has tested more than 357,000 people, among whom 334,481 tested negative for the virus and 14,278 were being checked.
