South Korea on Thursday reported a fresh record in daily COVID-19 cases since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country, a day after the government had declared the start of a fourth wave. 

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA), one-thousand-275 cases were added throughout Wednesday, lifting the country's cumulative caseload to 164-thousand-28.

The latest number is 63 higher than Wednesday’s and the highest-ever since the country reported its first case on January 20 last year. The tally previously peaked at one-thousand-240 on December 25. 

It also marks the first time that the daily figure exceeded one-thousand-200 for two days in a row. 

Of the new cases, one-thousand-227 are local transmissions, another record figure. The remaining 48 are from overseas.

By region, the greater metro area reported 994 cases, accounting for 81 percent of new local infections. 

It marks the second day in a row the capital region reported over 900 local infections following 990 on Wednesday and the ninth consecutive day the region took up over 80 percent of domestic cases. 

Other regions registered 233 domestic infections in total, including 77 in South Chungcheong Province and 55 in Busan. 

One more death has been reported, raising the death toll to two-thousand-34. The COVID-19 fatality rate for the nation stands at one-point-24 percent.  

The number of critically ill patients dropped by two to 153.