South Korea's daily COVID-19 cases climbed back over 400 on Wednesday after staying in the 300s for two days. 

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said Wednesday that 440 new cases were reported throughout the previous day to raise the country's accumulated total to 88-thousand-120.  

The government plans to announce as early as Friday new social distancing rules to be applied from next week, while monitoring the virus situation.

Of the new cases detected on Tuesday, 417 were local transmissions while 23 were imported.

About 70 percent of the local cases came from the greater metro area, with 138 in Seoul, 137 in Gyeonggi Province and 17 in Incheon. Other parts of the nation added 125 cases.

The number of critically ill patients dropped by eight to 140 while three more deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to one-thousand-576. The fatality rate stands at one-point-79 percent.