Daily COVID-19 cases neared two-thousand a day after hitting a new high of two-thousand-223. 

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said on Thursday that one-thousand-987 cases were confirmed throughout the previous day, bringing the country's accumulated caseload to 218-thousand-192.

While it dropped 236 cases from those reported on Wednesday, the figure is still the second highest on record and marks the 37th consecutive day that daily cases have been four digits.

Of the new cases, one-thousand-947 were local transmissions, while 40 were from overseas.

The Seoul metro area accounted for 61-point-seven percent of local cases, reporting one-thousand-201, including 522 in Seoul and 570 in Gyeonggi Province. 

Non-capital areas added 746 cases, including 128 in Busan and 108 in South Gyeongsang Province, hitting a record high for the second consecutive day since the beginning of July, which is considered the start of the pandemic’s fourth wave in South Korea. 

Three more deaths have been reported, lifting the death toll to two-thousand-138 while the fatality rate stands at zero-point-98 percent. The number of critically ill patients dropped by 15 from the previous day to 372, but stayed above 300 for the 13th straight day.