South Korea reported one-thousand-212 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, marking the second-highest daily figure since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country. 

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said on Wednesday that the additional new cases compiled throughout the previous day raised the country's cumulative caseload to 162-thousand-753.

Of the new cases, one-thousand-168 are local transmissions and 44 are from overseas.

The daily tally marks the largest figure this year and the second biggest since the outbreak of the pandemic in South Korea in January last year. The highest tally was reported on December 25 last year when it peaked at one-thousand-240. 

By region, the greater metro area reported 990 cases, accounting for 84-point-eight percent of local infections. 

It marks the first time the figure exceeded 900 since the nation reported its first case in January 20 last year.  The capital region took up over 80 percent of local cases for the eighth consecutive day.   

One more death has been reported, raising the total to two-thousand-33. The COVID-19 fatality rate for the nation stands at one-point-25 percent.  

The number of critically ill patients rose by eleven to 155.