South Korea reported 545 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, after staying in the 300s for two consecutive days. 

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said that the new infections compiled the previous day lifted the country's accumulated caseload to 149-thousand-191. 

The latest figure is 172 more cases than reported on Tuesday and marks the first time it has exceeded 500 since last Saturday, which registered 565 infections. 

Of the new cases, 522 were local transmissions and 23 were from overseas.

By region, the greater metro area accounted for around 75 percent of domestic cases, with Seoul adding 199 and Gyeonggi Province 184. 

Other regions reported 128 new infections in total, including 28 in Daejeon and 17 in North Chungcheong Province. 

One more death was reported, bringing the death toll to one-thousand-993. The fatality rate stands at one-point-34 percent.

The number of critically ill patients rose by one to 159.

Some 617-thousand people received their first vaccine doses on Tuesday, raising the number of people with at least one dose to 13-point-two million, or 25-point-seven percent of the population.