The daily COVID-19 increase in South Korea stayed in the 400s for the second day, as the nation braces for a mass movement of people during next week's Lunar New Year holiday.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said as of 12:00 a.m. Thursday, 451 additional people tested positive, raising the country's cumulative total to 79-thousand-762.

Daily numbers have fluctuated between the 300s and 400s over the week amid the government's continued enhanced social distancing that includes a ban on gatherings of five or more people.

Out of the 451 new cases, 429 were local infections, 337 of which were in the Seoul metropolitan area.

Infection clusters have sprung up around daily activities, such as some 40 people confirmed so far in connection to a restaurant in Seoul's Gwangjin district.

Authorities are also concerned about the country's first significant number of variant strain infections that have occurred locally. The mutated strains of COVID-19 are believed to be more contagious.