South Korea reported 746 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, staying in the 700s for the fourth day.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said the additional new cases compiled throughout the previous day raised the country's cumulative caseload to 161-thousand-541.

The daily tally marks the largest Monday figure since December 29, when it reached one-thousand-44.

The tally also topped 700 for seven straight days, the first such consecutive streak since late last year.  

Of the new cases detected throughout Monday, 690 are local transmissions and 56 are from overseas.

By region, the greater metro area accounted for 80-point-seven percent of local infections, including 313 in Seoul and 224 in the surrounding Gyeonggi Province. The capital region took up over 80 percent of local cases also for the seventh consecutive day.   

Four more deaths have been reported, bringing the total to two-thousand-32. The fatality rate stands at one-point-26 percent. 

The number of critically ill patients rose by five to 144.