Health authorities called for caution as the number of daily COVID-19 cases surpassed 500 for the first time in about two weeks on the cusp of the Lunar New Year holidays.

Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said in a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters on Thursday that mass travel during the four-day holiday could become a corridor for spreading the virus. 

He called for special caution among people in the Seoul metro area as more than three quarters of all domestic infections occurred in the Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon region over the past week. 

He urged the public to continue to abide by quarantine rules such as mask wearing and a ban on gatherings of five or more people. 

South Korea added 504 COVID-19 cases throughout Wednesday.